Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Schizophrenia Research

Abstract

31 articles on schizophrenia published during the first half of 1975 in four representative journals are thoroughly examined. The aim is to develop significant procedures and directions for subsequent research. The areas covered in order of frequency are thought disorder, responsiveness, methodology, treatment, and etiology. Such an approach provides a relatively rapid yet indicative overview of current trends. There are numerous methodological restrictions and the behavioral findings are highly specific. Recommendations are made that diagnostic criteria be specified and quantified, that sample characteristics be more extensive and precisely delineated, that the limitations of generalization from past findings be carefully acknowledged, that different designs and statistical treatments be employed, and that areas of concern be extended more often to personality variables of probable clinical significance.