Atypical Leukocyte Pattern of Schizophrenic Children

THERE ARE in the literature reports of investigations of the leukocytes in the peripheral blood of adult schizophrenic patients.^1-6 Fessel and Hirata-Hibi² described three types of abnormal leukocytes which they felt were related to the disease. How ever, Fieve et al⁶ have suggested that "these atypical lymphocytes are probably a phenothiazine drug effect, and not a function of the schizophrenic process."

During the past three years, the author has prepared and examined blood smears from schizophrenic children, some of whom had received phenothiazine drugs. The purposes of this paper are as follows: (1) to report the finding and frequency of several types of atypical leukocytes in the peripheral blood of children diagnosed as schizophrenic; (2) to report the frequency of these atypical leukocytes in the peripheral blood of schizophrenic children under continuous treatment with phenothiazine drugs; (3) to show the