Chronic Schizophrenia

AMONG the ever-appearing publications which deal with medical and allied subjects it is a relatively uncommon event for a volume devoted entirely to chemical pathology to appear and to those interested in this subject something of an event. The present volume differs in some essential respects from most of those already on the market in that, to quote from the author's preface, "This book has been designed to meet the needs of medical students and of house officers and registrars for an adequate knowledge of chemical pathology and to enable them to follow developments in this rapidly advancing subject." Within-these self-imposed limits the author has succeeded and his book should meet with considerable success. The format of the book is conventional, the initial chapters being devoted to the general biochemistry of the body constituents, water and electrolytes, carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. The succeeding chapters deal with disturbances of biochemical function on a systemic basis and the investigations of these abnormalities. The book is essentially concerned with interpretation and consequently data concerning the actual performance of laboratory procedures is limited to the minimum required for the understanding of the results. There are three appendices; No. 1 deals with normal values, No. 2 with methods of routine ward testing, and No. 3 selected examination questions on chemical pathology. Intentionally the author has limited his references to standard textbooks on the subject, and one cannot help feeling that rather more wide indication of useful additional reading would have been an advantage. Among the chapters of which special mention may be made are those dealing with the proteins, which includes a useful up-to-date account of differential protein analysis, and with the endocrine glands. The price of this book must compare very favourably with present-day prices for medical publications, and on the whole it can be warmly recommended not only to that group to whom it is directed, but would be found very useful by junior members of biochemical and laboratory establishments. IN this monograph the authors begin by laying before their readers a theoretical framework which they then proceed to apply to the behaviour and utterances of a group of schizophrenic patients between 20 and 40 years of age who had been in the chronic refractory wards of the Glasgow Royal Mental Hospital and who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic more than two years previously. They do not make it clear how long the …