[jschwartzi]

No, but it's worth considering that when this man ended up in the hospital for a physical ailment they started treating him. That, and his daughter, were enough to bring him back.

If he were to have been hospitalized, not institutionalized, I wonder if the outcome were the same.

Our society assumes mental illness is totally different from physical illness, but in cases like schizophrenia the treatment ends up being very similar. You take your pills and see a doctor. If he had the flu and had suddenly taken a turn for the worse, the discussion wouldn't have been about institutionalization. He would have received treatment in a hospital and then been discharged as soon as possible.

[corin_]

Mental illness isn't always that simple, though. I don't know much about schizophrenia but I know at least some mental issues won't always respond the same way to medication in different people - sometimes different medicines need to be tried, sometimes they need some sort of therapy e.g. CBT either instead of or along side drugs, sometimes they don't get cured at all. I'm not enough of an expert to talk in much more detail, though.