Changes in the hostility of schizophrenic patients during treatment

Hostility towards self and others often precipitates admission to hospital of the schizophrenic patient. A follow-up study of 24 newly admitted schizophrenic patients during eight weeks of treatment indicated high intropunitiveness and extra-punitiveness at admission which decreased concurrently with psychopathology. The larger change was in intro-punitiveness, resulting in an increase in the original predominance of extra-punitiveness. The various measures of hostility were not predictive of response to treatment at eight weeks. Comparisons between the schizophrenic group and a group of depressed patients indicated significant differences in the expression of hostility. At admission the schizophrenic patients are less intro-punitive and more extra-punitive than the depressed patients, these differences disappearing after eight weeks of treatment. This finding tends to support the psychodynamic view of projective and introjective mechanisms in these two illness groups.