Some quantitative aspects of shock therapy in psychoses

A quantitative analysis of the immediate results of insulin and electric shock therapy given a series of patients with schizophrenic reactions leads to a definition of minimum standards of adequacy of treatment and suggests that the immediate outcome in adequately treated patients depends on the duration of the illness. The experimental results are rationalized by a formal theory which postulates a slow development of the illness, improvement to some extent after each treatment, and a slow relapse.