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A Long-term Follow-up Study of Schizophrenia in Japan -with Special Reference to the Course of Social Adjustment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Kazuo Ogawa*
Affiliation:
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Gunma University School of Medicine
Mahito Miya
Affiliation:
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Gunma University School of Medicine
Akio Wataral
Affiliation:
Tone Chuo Hospital, Numata Shi
Masao Nakazawa
Affiliation:
Yoyogi Hospital, Tokyo
Shuichi Yuasa
Affiliation:
Haruna Hospital, Shibukawa Shi
Hiroshi Utena
Affiliation:
Sakamoto Clinic, Niiza Shi
*
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi Shi, Gunma Ken, 371, Japan

Abstract

A 21–27-year follow-up was conducted on 140 schizophrenic patients consecutively discharged from the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Gunma University Hospital, between 1958 and 1962, and 130 patients (93%) were successfully evaluated. Of these patients, 105 were still living, and the longitudinal courses could be fully observed in 98. With regard to the social outcome of the 105 patients, 47% were assessed as 'self-supportive’ whereas 31% were ‘hospitalised‘. As for psychopathological outcome, 31% were ‘recovered’, 46% were ‘improvead’, and 23% were ‘unimproved‘. In the studies of the longitudinal courses of the 98 patients, fluctuating courses of social adjustment were the most numerous in the early stages, whereas in the later stages many of the patients showed differentiation in one of two directions, namely the 'stable self-supportive’ state and the ‘chronic institutionalised’ state. However, this form of differentiation was not revealed in the distribution of psychopathological ‘end states'.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987 

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