Thirty Year Follow Up Study of Obsessions in Schizophrenia

The work Rosen did at the Maudsley went on to form the basis of his MD Thesis in 1954 and was subsequently published in the Journal of Mental Science in 1957. Rosen still had the names and case numbers of the patients he saw originally. The follow up study was classed by Rosen as 'phenomomenological' one. He needed clearance from the hospital's Ethical Committee for the study. The Ethical Committee did not grant him permission to obtain follow-up material from the relatives directly so he had to use other means to try to find out whether the patients were still alive and to see to what degree information could be obtained without recourse to the relatives.

The original group of patients for the study were seen in 1953. Rosen contacted the doctors (according to the Maudsley's records) in whose care the patient was currently to assist with providing information regarding the subsequent psychiatric history and present whereabouts of the patient. Rosen was acting as a Consultant Psychiatrist of the Paddington Centre for Psychotherapy. The other person conducting the study and writing the approach letters was Dr Diane LeFevre, Senior Registrar in Psychiatry, of the Maudsley Hospital and of St Mary's Hospital Paddington. This appears to have been a joint Maudsley/PCP project.