Psychotic Controls in Schizophrenia Research

Schizophrenia is but one form of psychosis; therefore, it is important to control for the psychotic factor in studies of the schizophrenic syndrome. A survey was done of 478 articles in 15 major psychiatric and psychological journals to determine the frequency of controls for psychosis in schizophrenia research. The survey covered 10 years from 1970 to 1979. Controls for psychosis were found in 11 percent of the articles surveyed. Nonpsychotic psychiatric controls appeared with a frequency of 38 percent. Nonpsychiatric controls (mostly normals) appeared with a frequency of 73 percent. A slight trend was observed for a gradual increase in the frequency of controls for psychosis over the last several years of the decade. Much of this increase was attributable to the innovative use of nonpsychotic schizophrenics as a control for psychosis and severity of pathology. These findings suggest that more attention should be given to controls for psychosis by investigators and editors in the publishing of research on schizophrenia.