It would be interesting to know if those who were on medication were on optimal doses of medication. The adverse effects of too high doses are well known.
It would not be surprising for someone who is over medicated to function less well than if not medicated at all.
That is a small sample and I hope more research is done. A possible explanation is that the people who were unmedicated did not need it as much. But other darker possibilities are that the meds hurt us physically worse by damaging the body, made us unable to cope because we didn’t have to it as much since it lessened symptoms, or that those of us who take the meds have it worse socially, economically, and vocationally because we were marginalized for bothering to seek help. For one thing the people who didn’t get help had to survive on their own and earn their way through life, rather than receiving public assistance for our illness (the book “Schizophrenia For Dummies” actually encourages new patients to go on SSI, or SSDI), giving them an incentive to do better. If I were able to sleep without the meds I probably would have tried to go without them as I was facing an early death by exhaustion if I didn’t. The illness literally made it impossible to sleep. I wouldn’t let one study cause me to make such a decision but I agree it is an interesting topic.
I went ten years without treatment. I graduated high school and college, and held 2-3 jobs the whole time. But damn, was I ever miserable! I am much happier now that I have medication.
