A STATISTICAL STUDY OF PROGNOSIS IN INSANITY
Aaron J. Rosanoff · JAMA · 1914
The introduction of Kraepelin's classification has been of benefit, but not unmixed with drawbacks—none the less real for being unnecessary—among which not the least regrettable has been the growth of a tendency to neglect the consideration of prognosis, as based on the special data of cases in hand, seemingly owing to an assumption that the prognosis is fully implied in the diagnosis. In other words, the improvement of the criteria in general prognosis has been somewhat at the expense of individual prognosis. To this tendency there would be no objection if the criteria as applied to general prognosis were trustworthy in every case; but this, in fact, is not true and he who is satisfied with saying, "This is a case of dementia praecox, it will, therefore, end in deterioration," or "This is a case of manic-depressive insanity, it will, therefore, end in recovery, but there are likely to be