ABSTRACT
Why did fewer schizophrenic people recover during the twentieth-century Great Depression? It is, of course, scarcely surprising that social recovery rates in schizophrenia declined at that time since employment is a large part of the measure of social functioning; but why was there a drop in the rate of complete, symptom-free recovery (as revealed by the analysis of follow-up studies in Chapter 3) from an average of 20 per cent to 12 per cent? Which of the following possible explanations is most applicable? • Government spending on psychiatric treatment decreased during the
Depression, resulting in hospital overcrowding and poor quality care. • The stresses of the Depression, including economic hardship and
unemployment, affected patients and their families and prevented recovery or precipitated psychotic relapse.
