The Psycho-Pharmacology of Sodium Amytal in Catatonia

Thorner, Melvin W.

doi:10.1097/00005053-193509000-00005

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Thorner (1935) transcribed interviews with catatonic patients undergoing sodium amytal interviews. This paper is the first recorded modern usage of the term ‘psychopharmacology’ (Lehmann, 1993).…”

Section: Cases Of Off-label Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By slowly pushing amytal intravenously, it was possible to maintain periods of lucidity in these patients for long enough to ask questions. One young male who had not spoken for two years was able to explain why: ‘Every time I had something to say so many things occurred to me that by the time I had decided to say something it was too late’ (Thorner, 1935). This growing literature helped to reveal that, rather than being passively stuck in a state of reduced mentation, catatonic patients have hyperactive and fearful thoughts despite their lack of interaction with the external world.…”

Section: Cases Of Off-label Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1930, Bleckwenn's 'off-label' use of sodium amytal led to the discovery that, in small doses, the drug allowed otherwise inaccessible catatonic patients to be free from their stupor. This discovery was soon further developed by psychiatrist Melvin Thorner, whose patients could temporarily answer questions and provide insights into their condition (Thorner, 1935). This combination of psychodynamics and pharmacotherapy allowed new insight into catatonia as a psychiatric condition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How amytal changed psychopharmacy: off-label uses of sodium amytal (1920–40)

Gershon

Shorter

2019

Hist Psychiatry

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In the early 1930s, American neurologist and psychiatrist William Bleckwenn used sodium amytal to render catatonic patients responsive, so that he could engage in talk therapy. Bleckwenn found a new, ‘off-label’ use for this anaesthetic and anxiolytic medication in psychiatry and, in doing so, allowed for important discoveries in the diagnosis and treatment of catatonia. Pharmacological textbooks reveal a ‘label’, while the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General’s Office reveals explorations ‘off label’ of barbiturates. The ‘off-label’ use of barbiturates facilitated talk therapy, heralding an important shift in psychopharmacy. Drugs previously only used as chemical restraints became a form of treatment for specific psychiatric diseases. The current strictures against off-label prescribing are overprescriptive and close off innovative new uses.

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Section: Cases Of Off-label Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cases Of Off-label Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How amytal changed psychopharmacy: off-label uses of sodium amytal (1920–40)

Gershon

Shorter

2019

Hist Psychiatry

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“…He observed that catatonic uncommunicative patients would begin to talk and communicate quite freely when they were injected with a sodium amy tal solution that, according to a term used by Gullotta, "decatonized" them. Thorner explains this phenomenon on the basis of Sherrington's hierar chy of cerebral functions: the "super-inhibited," cata tonic brain is partially disinhibited and remains in that more normal state for several minutes or hours (Thorner 1935;Gullotta 1932).…”

Section: Before They Called It Psychopharmacology 295mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After a careful search of the modern litera ture, I came to the conclusion that official general use of the term psychopharmacology in publications dates only to 1960, following a paper by Ross and Cole enti tled "Psychopharmacology," when also psychophar macology appears for the fIrst time as a free-standing item in the Cumulated Index Medicus. So, the period I will concentrate on will be pre-1960 (Freeman 1931;Thorner 1935;Ross and Cole 1960).…”

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Before They Called It Psychopharmacology

Lehmann

1993

Neuropsychopharmacol

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PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGYIt is a great privilege and honor to be here today, giv ing the second annual lecture on the history of psy chopharmacology. My friend Frank Ayd did such an admirable job with his lecture last year, on the early history, that I have had a hard problem finding gaps to fill . What I have finally chosen to do is to trace for you some of the early history, complete with anecdotes, which preceded our modern notions of psychology and pharmacology and then to tell you something of my own experiences and findings in the psychiatric world of the 1940s and 1950s, a world that was remarkably diff erent and simplistic compared to today. I also in tend to give you a subjective " oral history" of my own stumbling attempts to make some sense out of the vague and somewhat chaotic potpourri of ideas and pharmacologic approaches to psychiatric problems a half century ago. HISTORY OF THE TERM PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGYThe term psychopharmacology was first suggested in the year 1548. It was a renaissance term used by Rein hard Lorichius in his "Psychopharmakon, hoc est Medi cina animae" (Wolman 1977). Almost 400 years later, in 1920, we find the first use of the full term psychophar macology by D. Macht, a pharmacologist working at

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Psychologic Structure of Catatonia

Thorner¹

1938

Arch NeurPsych

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The Psycho-Pharmacology of Sodium Amytal in Catatonia

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

How amytal changed psychopharmacy: off-label uses of sodium amytal (1920–40)

How amytal changed psychopharmacy: off-label uses of sodium amytal (1920–40)

Before They Called It Psychopharmacology

Psychologic Structure of Catatonia

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