Chlorpromazine and Reserpine in the Treatment of Psychoses

Kinross-Wright, Vernon

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1955.tb42464.x

Cited by 46 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…Owing to the disturbance the rat can be placed in catatoniclike postures. Similar accounts have been given of patients overdosed with reserpine (Kinross-Wright, 1955). Such patients have developed a condition simulating paralysis agitans with paralysis of volitional movement.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Some Aspects of the Effects of Acute Reserpine Treatment on Behaviour

Glow¹

1959

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

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Hitherto behavioural investigations with reserpine have been confined to the use of very small doses, doses which weight for weight are considerably lower than those used in clinical work. Sidman (1956) used a Skinner lever pressing apparatus for investigating the effect of up to 0 1 mg./kg. reserpine on work under different reinforcement programmes. Smith, Wagman, Wagman and Riopelle (1956), investigating the effects of reserpine on conditioned avoidance behaviour in monkeys with brain lesions, used doses between 0415 and 0-37 mg./kg. However, pharmacologists have reported interesting effects with more substantial doses in a variety of species. In particular, attention can be drawn to the atypical sedation induced by the drug. Unlike other depressants of the central nervous system, e.g., barbiturates, reserpine produces no anaesthesia, as animals can always be roused by external stimulation. Further, a paradoxical behaviour and electro-encephalographic pattern appears. Rats, for example, appear chronically sedated to the observer but have an alerted E.E.G. At the same time the limbs of drugged rats can be positioned in catatonic-like postures, deep body temperature falls steeply, and the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system appears to be blockaded. Subsequent reports will deal with experiments designed to determine the connexion between the pharmacological and physiological properties of the drug and behaviour. The present paper is concerned with accounts of the drug concentrations and the time factors which are involved in a behavioural disturbance induced with reserpine. In order to accomplish this it was necessary to discover the course of the reserpine disturbance in the rat the onset, the duration, and the time of recovery-by employing some behavioural criterion. For this purpose two measures were employed, response latency, that is, the time taken by the rat from the moment of entry into the apparatus to when it began to run, and a locomotor time score obtained from a straight runway apparatus. It was held that latency could be taken as the time required for the rat to organize its response in a given situation. In view of the known high specificity of reserpine treatment on the central nervous system it was postulated that this measure would be adequately sensitive. Locomotor efficiency was tested by measuring the time taken by the rat to move over a fixed distance. A 100 decibel mixed frequency noise generator was used to induce running behaviour in the apparatus after a criterion latency time had been exceeded. Design A concomitant variation design was used for this experiment. The work was spread out over three weeks, with the middle week as a control period, in order to ensure that there would be no carry-over effect in the treatment in the first week to the third week. The design is set out in Table I. The behavioural measures employed were latency of response and running time. The two controls were, first, the vehicle in which the reserpine raw material was dissolved,* and secondly,...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Some Aspects of the Effects of Acute Reserpine Treatment on Behaviour

Glow¹

1959

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

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“…Selon l'opinion de nom breux au teu rs [3,4,14,17,18,21,27,29], c'est la sim ilitude d 'activ ité de ces deux m édicam ents qui joue un rôle dans le cas précité.…”

Section: R In a Ld I Et H Im W Ichunclassified

La reserpine (Serpasil) dans le traitement de la chorée de Huntington

Zmorski¹

1959

Eur Neurol

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“…1955;Maggs and Ellison 1960;Kirk et al 1970). Since agitated patients responded best, most authorities ascribed this to nonspecific sedating actions, and most studies failed to document specific antidepressant effects (Flach 1955;Kinross-Wright 1955;Gahagan 1957). Poldinger (1959) first reported rapid, dramatic improvement upon adding a 2-day course of high-dose intramuscular reserpine to ongoing imipramine (IMI) in treatmentrefractory depressed patients.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reserpine augmentation of desipramine in refractory depression: clinical and neurobiological effects

1987

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Early studies showed dramatic improvement in some depressed patients when a brief course of parenteral reserpine was added to ineffective tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) treatment. We treated eight patients with DSM-III melancholic major depression with desipramine (DMI) greater than or equal to 2.5 mg/kg/day (plasma levels greater than 125 ng/ml) for at least 4 weeks. All patients failed to respond and received reserpine 5 mg IM b.i.d. over 2 days, in seven cases as a placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. One patient had dramatic resolution of depressive and psychotic symptoms within 48 h, but relapsed within 2 weeks; two other patients had transient hypomanic symptoms. Depression ratings did not significantly change for the sample as a whole, but plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylethyleneglycol (MHPG) decreased and CSF levels of homovanillic acid (HVA) and 5-hydroxy-indoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) increased. Despite robust effects on central monoamine metabolism, reserpine augmentation appears insufficiently effective for routine use in managing refractory depression.

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Chlorpromazine and Reserpine in the Treatment of Psychoses

Cited by 46 publications

References 6 publications

Some Aspects of the Effects of Acute Reserpine Treatment on Behaviour

Some Aspects of the Effects of Acute Reserpine Treatment on Behaviour

La reserpine (Serpasil) dans le traitement de la chorée de Huntington

Reserpine augmentation of desipramine in refractory depression: clinical and neurobiological effects

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