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This volume is a monographic extension of an earlier report (Am. J. Psychiat. 114:1077, 1958) with an amplification of the sections devoted to survey of the literature, methodology, tabulations of data, and discharge and follow-up results. The original report summarizes the data well, and the justification for the monograph appears to lie in the documentation of the methodological problems and limitations of psychopharmacologic research.
After a critical survey of the relatively few “controlled” drug evaluation studies between 1954 and 1956, the authors carefully delineate their problem—a comparative study of the efficacy of reserpine and chlorpromazine in previously untreated, male schizophrenic veterans. Patients were selected on clinical criteria and randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: chlorpromazine, reserpine, clinical judgment (any treatment, including chlorpromazine or reserpine), and hospital routine (no specific somatic or psychotherapies). The specific treatment was administered for four weeks, and thereafter all patients were assigned to