In a pharmacopsychiatric pilot study 28 patients with an acute schizophrenic illness were treated for 4 weeks with perazine (Taxilan). Research goals in the psychopathological investigation were: (1) to assess the range of efficacy, target symptoms and syndromes of perazine and to compare these results with previous studies; (2) to compare the quality, interrater reliability, and practicability of two instruments of psychopathological assessment (AMDP and BPRS) for measuring change during treatment; (3) to apply new mathematical methods for finding statistically significant changes in symptomatology on the item level as well as on the levels of syndrome and total score; (4) to test whether pre-treatment prediction based on psychopathological evaluation or psychophysiological data is possible. The target symptoms and syndromes of perazine were the "positive" schizophrenic syndromes, above all thought disturbances and delusional phenomena. This result was consistent with a former perazine investigation. The BPRS proved to be a practicable and reliable instrument for a more global evaluation of change in psychopathology. The AMDP seemed to be especially useful for evaluating the homogeneity of a sample and showing differentiated psychopathological profiles. On this scale, changes in symptomatology became statistically apparent more clearly and more quickly on the syndrome level rather than on the level of single items. As to interrater reliability, both scales perform well. Dichotomizing the original scaling may mean a loss of information from both scales (AMDP and BPRS) in their evaluation of change. Hence it seems necessary to introduce new mathematical procedures (e.g., Friedman and Dunn-Rankin tests) into pharmacopsychiatric research.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Fluperlapine (NB-106-689) was tested on 26 schizophrenic patients in an open and crossover study. In addition to its good antipsychotic effect, it also alleviated the apathic and depressive syndromes. Six patients who had shown only slight or no improvement after 4 weeks of haloperidol therapy responded positively to fluperlapine. The alleviation of the anergic syndrome was especially impressive. The therapeutic response of the depressive-apathic syndromes could represent an important extension of pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia. The virtual lack of extrapyramidal motor side effects with fluperlapine supports an intensification of the search for other nonclassic dibenzo-epine neuroleptics.
SummaryThe natural history of alcoholism is still a matter of debate. Very few studies have addressed the issue of the post-treatment course longitudinally. We present the results of a long-term follow-up study in ninety-six alcohol dependent patients who were treated in a combined in-patient and out-patient treatment programme. Two, five and ten years after the initial treatment in 1976, they were re-investigated. Ninety-four percent of the patients could be located ten years after treatment. Fifty-one percent were abstinent, 22% were deceased, 14% of the patients’ drinking was unchanged and 7% had improved. This outcome is discussed and compared with the results of other long-term studies.
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