In 1955 the New York State mental hospitals undertook a large-
scale program of tranquilizing drug therapy which during the
first full year of its operation reached 27.9% of all cases(2).
This was a 250% increase of use of somatic therapy in one year
and was followed by a reduction of 500 in patient population,
reversing a long-term increase of some 2,000 per year. The data
for that year were analyzed and were compared with that of the
year preceding when the population had increased by 2,500 and
the conclusion reached that the addition of drug therapy was the
only significant identifiable change which had occurred in the
treatment conditions of the Department and that the favorable
change was attributable in major degree to the use of
chlorpromazine and reserpine.Another 3 years have now passed and
the fall has continued. The population on March 31, 1959 was
4,100 below the figure of 4 years before and this apparently
represents a well-marked trend. It is, however, no longer
possible to say that circumstances