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A review of the papers presented at the Ninety-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association may give a comprehensive impression of the recent status of insulin and metrazol shock therapy.
Insulin. Ross and Malzberg (p. 297) report results on 1039 cases of schizophrenia just after completion of treatment and one year later. The percentage in the recovered and much improved groups after treatment was
37.6; one year later 29.5. In the improved group, the percentage was 26 after treatment; 19.6 after one year. Analysis of results according to age, duration, and type of psychosis showed best results in the age group from 25 to 34, in cases of short duration, and in the catatonic and paranoid types.
Bond, Hughes and Flaherty (p. 317) report that 8 to 26 months after treatment 38 per cent of a group of 82 cases of insulin treated schizophrenia were recovered and much improved, 5 per cent were improved. These results are compared with 5 year results in untreated patients: recovery 10 per cent, improvement 10 per cent. These authors also note that insight is better in insulin-treated than control cases.
Notkin, Niles, DeNatale and Wittman (p. 681) give results on 100 treated, 69 untreated cases of schizophrenia soon after treatment and 8 months to 2 years later. Immediate results were 36 per cent improved in the treated group compared with 21.7 per cent of the untreated controls. After 8 months to 2 years, 47 per cent of the improved treated patients had relapsed and returned to the hospital, compared with 33.3 per cent of the controls. The authors note that the shorter the psychosis the greater the percentage of recovery and the fewer the relapses.
Metrazol. Ross and Malzberg (p. 297) report only 11.5 per cent in the recovered and much improved groups with metrazol treatment, as compared with 14.7 in the untreated controls and 37.6 in the insulin-treated. However, the 'improved' group with metrazol was 24.5 per cent, increasing the total