Effect of drug ritual changes on schizophrenic patients

Abstract

The author evaluated the charts of 115 chronic schizophrenic patients who regularly attended a follow up group to determine whether changes in longstanding medication regimens produced an increased dropout rate, decreased attendance, or psychotic decompensation. He found that although there were nonsignificant trends showing a relationship between medication change and group attendance for individual patients there were no significant differences between group attendance and change or no change in medication routine for the group of patients as a whole. He concludes that necessary changes in medication routines for chronic schizophrenic patients are safe.