[Somatic therapy of endogenous psychoses (author's transl)]

In pursuit of the idea of the scientific concept of disease, the aim of somatic treatment of the endogenous psychotic patient should be a specific causal therapy without aggravating and therapeutically useless side effects. Modern psychopharmacotherapy approaches this requirement. Insulin coma therapy and psychosurgical procedures have rightly been abandoned. Electroconvulsive therapy, on the other hand, in certain indications and observing certain precautions is still applicable. Under the influence of ideological critics with no experience of the method, its dangers are immeasurable over-emphasized and its therapeutic efficacy underestimated.