Abstract

Social workers have traditionally held to psy-chological and sociological explanations of the causes of schizophrenia. But recent research is rapidly uncovering evidence for genetic and biochemical sources of the disorder. This may well prompt a reorientation of current treat-ment modalities. IN A RECENT experiment, eight psychologically sound "pseudo-patients " presented themselves to psychiatrists at twelve psychiatric hospitals. Feigning symptoms and pre-senting false case histories, they were able to have them-selves admitted to these hospitals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Once admitted, they behaved normally and cooperatively, but in no instance did hospital personnel question or alter the original diagnosis on the basis of the "patients ' " normal behavior. 1 This widely publicized experiment did not furnish ir-refutable proof that current psychiatric diagnostic meth-odology is faulty. Malingerers and physicians alike are aware of the ease with which a wide range of symptoms may be simulated to lead to a misdiagnosis and then fol-lowed by an apparent remission. Clearly, the experimenters