Clinical Studies of Psychoses in the Navy

A Comparative Study of the Personal Histories of Schizophrenic and Nonpsychiatric Patients.

“…A search of the literature reveals over 300 studies of life histories of psychiatric patients. Fewer than ten of these included data on a reasonably comparable control group (Aldrich & Coffin, 1948;Lane, 1955;Nielsen, 1954;Steinberg & Wittman, 1943). The bulk of the studies report simply the frequency of such items as patient's age at death of a parent as recorded in mental hospital records.…”

Special aspects of schizophrenia.

“…Aldrich, Knight, and Coffin ( 5 ) have published both predictive and prognostic studies on a group of 106 former enlisted men (Navy and Marine) who had developed a ps!chosis while on duty during N'orld W a r 11. They conclude that the Harrower-Erickson Multiple Choice Rorschach is not a practicable means for discovering potentially p ~ychotic individuals, and exprcss the belief that a careful psychiatric examination at induction boards, with follow-up of doubtful cases and availability of mental hospital and penal institution records, is better adaptccl to this purpose.…”

Prognostic significance of type of onset of mental illness.

“…On the basis of clinical observation, psychiatrists have tended to assume that an acute onset of mental illness is a favorable prognostic sign, and insidious onset is an unfavorable sign [6,8,9]. Uncontrolled clinical studies have provided tentative evidence in favor of this point of view [1,3,4,5,10,11]. Bellak's review of the literature on dementia praecox [2, pp.…”