ABSTRACT
In 1957 the Psychopharmacology Treatment and Research Unit of the Department of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center undertook a study of the feasibility of maintaining chronic schizophrenic patients in the community on a program of drug treatment and minimal supportive psychotherapy. Once the patient enters treatment he remains on the same drug for the duration of his clinic attendance; thus treatment continues indefinitely. Patients are retained in the clinic regardless of degree of improvement attained so that at present some patients have been in treatment in excess of five years. In evaluating the significance of this finding, it should be borne in mind that our population of schizophrenic patients represented a cross-section drawn from the community at large and contained within it patients with differing histories of hospitalization. The improvement in social behavior observed over the first six months of treatment parallels closely those observed for psychotic symptomatology and for incidence of hospitalization.
