Treatment and the Course of Schizophrenia*

Abstract

controlled variables. The task is made more complex in view of the hundreds of treatment studies that bear indirectly on the question, only a sampling of which will be reviewed in this text. One must, as it were, view the question with mirrors. The problem, perhaps, would be better stated by asking: Whose definition of schizophrenia should we consider? Has schizophrenia, variably defined, changed over time? If so, has the change been due to treatment?