A COMPARISON BETWEEN UNIDIRECTIONAL CURRENT NONCONVULSIVE ELECTRICAL STIMULATION GIVEN WITH REITER'S MACHINE, STANDARD ALTERNATING CURRENT ELECTROSHOCK (CERLETTI METHOD), AND PENTOTHAL IN CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA

In this study it has been demonstrated that under environmental conditions wherein opportunity for activity was available there is an improvement in the social performance of chronic schizophrenic patients treated with ECT, nonconvulsive stimulation under Pentothal, and Pentothal alone. The improvement does not vary significantly with the various types of treatment. ECT was the most difficult treatment to give owing to the apprehension shown by the patients. Although there was a change in all the social qualities discussed this was significant only as regards the increase in activity of the patients both actively and passively and in the interest the staff felt they showed in their environment. Three patients who were incontinent of feces became continent. The only significant change in the patients' psychosis was that all 30 were demonstrably hallucinating at the end of the experiment. It is felt that this may well be an indirect effect of the treatment in that the patients were participating more in a real world and presumably the more acute evidence of illness is a defense mechanism.