title: Study of relapses in schizophrenia using the life table method.
abstract: The life table has been used to study mortality and survival in a population and also the pattern of course of various chronic medical illnesses. In this study, the life table has been applied to a cohort of well defined Schizophrenic patients undergoing a long term followup. The probability of occurence of relapses, time of maximum risk for occurence of relapses are estimated using the life table technique. The life table shows a steep fall in the percentage of Non-relapsers from 85% at the end of first year to 35% at the end of the third year. Projected survival rate at the end of 5 years, using the second degree parabola curve, is only 2 % which needs to be tested by further followup.
authors.affiliation: Senior Research Officer, ICMR Project on Course and outcome of Schizophrenia, and Joint Secretary, Schizophrenia Research Foundation; Dept. of Psychiatry, Madras Medical College and Government General Hospital, Madras.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thara
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Raman
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajkumar
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vijayalakshmi