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Luc Ciompi
Research on the long-term course of mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia
From 1963 through 1972, Ciompi was the chief investigator in an extended research program on the long-term course of severe mental illnesses. This unique reseach project, known as the “Enquête of Lausanne”, had been initiated in 1962 by prof. Christian Müller, then director of the psychiatric university Clinic of Lausanne/Switzerland. Still representing one of the longest and largest psychiatric follow-up studies in the world, it is based on a sample of 5661 former in-patients aged over 65 in 1963, which had been first admitted, in average, 30-40 years before. About 1000 survivors of all diagnostic groups were personally re-examined at their current living places in Switzerland, and complementary information about their life-course was systematically collected from hospital files, treating psychiatrists, general practioners, authorities, relatives, etc. In addition, causes of death and mortality rates among the deceased were studied and compared with the corresponding data in the general Swiss population, in order to identify main factors of selection among the survivors.
