Psychiatrist Says Depression Causes Students to Drop Out

Among Harvard dropouts, the higher the intelligence-or, more accurately, the academic potential as measured by Projected Rank List (PRL)-the more likely he is to drop out for psychiatric reasons, according to a Medical School psychiatrist.

"The data suggest that when a graduate school refuses an applicant because he has dropped out for psychiatric reasons, the school not only closes the door to a student who has as high a probability of completing his education as any other drop-out but may also be denying entrance to one of the more intellectually gifted," said Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr. in a 1970 report to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Nicholi's conclusions are based on a five-year study-and seven-to-ten-year follow-ups-of 1454 men who dropped out of Harvard College for all reasons during 1955-60.

According to Nicholi, about 24 per cent of each class for the past 20 years has dropped out; about 90 per cent of these come back at some time, but less than half actually get Harvard degrees.

"Emotional illness far outweighs every other cause for leaving college," Nicholi said. "More than 43 per cent of the sample left for psychiatric reasons."

A "psychiatric dropout," Nicholi said, was defined as a student who consulted a psychiatrist one or more times before leaving college and who was given a specific psychiatric diagnosis.

Of the sample studied, 43 per cent left school for psychiatric reason. More than 700 of these failed to obtain a degree from Harvard, and approximately 420 failed to obtain a degree from any institution.

Brilliant Drop Out

"The data demonstrate clearly that the psychiatric dropouts are more intelligent as a group than those leaving college for other than psychiatric reasons," Nicholi said. "The relationship of high intelligence to psychiatric disorder among the dropouts was further demonstrated within each major field of study."

Dropouts with a diagnosis of psychoses, Nicholi said, were over represented in social sciences, literature, history, government and economics. Dropouts with a diagnosis of a neurotic disorder were over represented in mathe-matics, the humanities and the physical sciences.

According to Nicholi, most dropouts leave school because of depression, or "the discrepancy between what they thought they were before they came here and what they are beginning to feel they are when they've been here for a while."

"These students are often plagued with the fear that they are not really very bright," Nicholi said.

"The decision to leave college," Nicholi added, "seldom, if ever, causes depression; on the contrary, the decision to leave, once made, brings considerable relief."

Some conclusions of Nicholi's study include:

Students with private-school backgrounds have a higher probability of dropping out than students who attended public schools, but the public-school students tend to drop out more frequently for psychiatric reasons (although the more serious illnesses are over represented among the private school students);

Of the 1454 students who withdrew, 48.2 per cent eventually graduated from Harvard, with 2.8 per cent being elected to Phi Beta Kappa;

The dropout sample had a significantly higher percentage of divorced and deceased parents than the general undergraduate population;

The psychiatric dropouts tended to return to college and to graduate as frequently as the non-psychiatric dropouts-they returned to college sooner, but tended to drop out more frequently a second time;

The psychiatric dropouts have higher academic potential (and intelligence) than the non-psychiatric dropouts;

Students who leave college because of emotional illness are over-represented in the social sciences, math, and biological sciences, and under-represented in history-economics-government;

The psychiatric dropouts who did not return tended to enter the military more frequently than the non-psychiatric dropouts;

Dropouts with a diagnosis of schizophrenic reaction are least likely to return to college; dropouts with a diagnosis of adjustment reaction of adolescence, passive-aggressive personality, and sexual deviation (in that order) are most likely to return;

Dropouts with a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive reactions ranked highest in intelligence (as measured by PRL), followed by unstable personality and sexual deviation. The categories of anxiety reaction and schizophrenia reaction ranked lowest-but the schizoid personality had by far the highest score on the SAT verbal test;

The longer a student waits before returning to college, the less chance he has of obtaining a degree.

Of the 256 black students admitted to the 20 classes of 1950-1969, 76, or 28.7 per cent, had dropped out by the time of graduation. This figure is "significantly above" the general dropout rate of 24 per cent, Nicholi said, and "focusing merely on the American black dropouts, the percentage [30.3 per cent] is even more striking." (Only 16.7 per cent of African black students withdrew).

However, Nicholi said, although black students tend to drop out more often in general, they drop out less often for psychiatric disorders-the conflict is more likely to be environmental rather than personal.

"He finds himself in a bind," Nicholi said of the potential dropout. "He can no longer tolerate the loneliness of his work; neither can he tolerate the competitive anxiety provoked by close contact with colleagues. He withdraws into himself. His work rapidly deteriorates. He becomes overwhelmed with guilt and despair... A paralyzing state of depression ensues and leaving college appears the only recourse that promises relief."