Analysis of prognostic factors in insulin therapy.

Abstract

DEEP insulin-shock therapy has been established as an accepted treatment for schizophrenia and certain allied disorders for over a decade. Many publications indicate that higher ratios of satisfactory results are obtained from insulin-treated patients than from controls, particularly if the treatment is administered early in the course of the disease. 1 The purpose of this investigation is to determine what factors, if any, are of prognostic significance with reference to this form of therapy. MATERIAL One thousand patients, all males, were treated with deep insulin-shock therapy over a three-year period. The selection of these patients was not on the basis of probable prognosis but entirely on the presentation of a diagnosis of schizophrenia or an allied functional psychosis. Of these, 1,000 patients the data on 639 were subjected to final analysis. Excluded were 52 patients who did not complete the course of treatment because of complications, 1 who died of