The Stabilizing Effect of Occupational Therapy on Chronic Psychotics with a Tendency to Aggressive Forms of Behaviour

Extract

Bickford has underlined the need for devoting more attention to the chronic psychotic patient and stressed the possibility of accelerating what he believes to be the inevitable remission of the psychosis. There may be a current tendency to think in terms of the physical or pharmacological treatments in handling psychotic patients and to overlook the value of more conservative measures. Myerson attempted to revive interest in the latter by coining the term “total push” and providing a theoretical basis for the activities organized. Galioni et al. presented the results of a similar programme which showed 18 · 5 per cent. of the experimental group “separated” from the hospital as compared with 5 per cent. of the controls. Kamman et al. show that while the initial improvement certainly takes place, unless careful placement is achieved relapse occurs.