Soviet Psychiatrists to Tour Hospital

Ten Soviet psychiatrists will tour Camarillo State Hospital today and Wednesday to learn about schizophrenia advances and clients’ rights in the United States.

The doctors chose Camarillo because they are particularly interested in the schizophrenia research under way there, said Dr. Robert Liberman, director of the Clinical Research Center for Schizophrenia and Psychiatric Rehabilitation. The research is a joint effort between Camarillo State Hospital and UCLA.

“This research is recognized worldwide as an example of new, innovative and effective treatment of schizophrenia,” Liberman said. The psychiatrists will also tour facilities at UCLA, the UC San Diego and the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The Soviet psychiatrists are interested in learning how the human rights and civil liberties of psychiatric patients are protected.

The Soviet Union’s Psychiatric Society was expelled from the World Psychiatric Assn. about six years ago after being accused of placing political dissidents in mental institutions and diagnosing them as mentally ill because of their views, Liberman said.

The Soviet Psychiatric Society was provisionally readmitted to the association earlier this year.

“I think their readmission and their visit here in an attempt to learn our diagnostic thinking is a sign of the times: The Cold War is over,” Liberman said.

“Not only are they changing their economic system, but they are also deciding that it is not appropriate to control the nonconformist part of society through psychiatry.”