PROGNOSIS IN PSYCHIATRY

Abstract

WHEN A patient has a psychiatric illness, it is important for the family physician to know the prognosis in order to counsel the patient and his family. The prognosis will influence the physician's advice on matters ranging from the type of treatment recommended to the expected financial burden of hospitalization and lost earning power. Knowledge of the efficacy of treatment is desired by the psychiatrist in order to establish more precise indications, avoid inadequate or ill-defined methods of treatment, and select the treatment of choice. Unrealistic attitudes about prognosis are common, with excessive pessimism on the one hand and overoptimism on the other. Furthermore, it is desirable that treatment methods in medicine be under continuous scrutiny and criticism as to their effectiveness so that suggestions and modifications may be developed for the improvement of therapy. Several thousand studies of the results of various treatments in psychiatry have been published. To