Excerpts From Annual Reports of the Illinois Department of Public Welfare Manteno State Hospital - July 1, 1954 - June 30, 1955 Manteno State Hospital came under construction in December 1928 and the first patients were admitted on December 27, 1930, when 100 were transfered from Kankakee State Hospital. 1955, therefore, marks the 25th anniversary so far as patient occupancy is concerned. Growth was rapid and Manteno quickly became the largest of the state hospitals in Illinois. The resident population on June 30, 1955 was 8,087, or 98 less than a year ago. Admissions for the year totaled 2, 925, or 10.9% less than in the preceding fiscal year. Absolute discharges were 2,145 or 8.4% less than in fiscal 1953-54. Conditional discharges numbering 837 increased by 24%, and 76 were placed on family care. There were 639 deaths. Manteno State Hospital along with most mental hospitals in this country, has not been accredited by the inspection committees because of overcrowding (51 percent at present) and shortage of personnel. The hospital receives approximately 42% of all patients committed through Cook County Psychopathic Hospital. The admissions and readmissions of voluntary alcoholic patients, most of them in the Chicago are, continued high. These patients show little inclination to abstain after receiving maximum hospital benefits. The high admission and discharge rates of such patients increased the work of medical, nursing, and medical records personnel especially. The use of newer drugs, especially reserpine and chlorpromazine, was intensified. These types of drugs, while not a panacea, offer hope for increased benefits from various drugs in the treatment program. Greater medical supervision, however, is necessary to expand this type of drug therapy. Two physicians from Manteno State Hospital participated in a symposium held in New York on the use of these drugs. Due to the expanded drug program, electroconvulsive and insulin therapy were employed less extensively. Research on mental illness was continued under the direction of consultants Dr. Nathaniel Apter and Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, in a combined pharmacologic and psychiatric program. The neurosurgIcal investigative program was terminated in June when the neurosurgeon left state employment to enter private practice.