The growing use of chlorpromazine and reserpine arouses interest in the following questions: 1. How effective are these drugs in chronic psychosis, particularly schizophrenia? 2. In what syndromes are they most useful? 3. What is there relation to other methods of treatment? 4. What are their comparative advantages and disadvantages?
We have tried to gather information on these points by the following procedures:
Treatment of patients whose mental illness has resisted other therapies
Comparison of the results obtained with the two drugs
Control of the findings through the use of placebos
Measurement of drug effectiveness by (a) behavior ratings, (b) concurrent need for ECT (electric convulsive therapy), (c) electroencephalographic studies, and (d) psychological tests
Correlation of the results with the psychiatric syndrome
Observation of the effects on psychotherapy
MATERIAL AND METHOD
Our basic study was conducted on 150 patients, with an average time since hospital admission of 6.6 years per