Drugs used to control violent mental patients.

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Good Morning: I am involved in a writing project (nothing immoral or illegal) where accuracy is very important. I have a question that you may be willing, and able to answer: "In the early 1950s, at state mental hospitals, what drugs were most used to control violent patients?" Thank you, (Mr.) Cyril A. Reisert 219 West Union Street Liberty, Indiana 47353-1332

-- (Mr.) Cyril A. Reisert (careisert@earthlink.net), July 09, 2002

Answers

You might start with the following link:

http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/1997/03_97/psych.htm

Also check dictionaryies of psychology for articles on psychotropic drugs.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), July 09, 2002.


Hi Cyril, You definitely have to look at the history of the phenothiazines: piperdine (thioridazine), piperazine (trifluoperazine) and especially aliphatic (chloropromazine) since it was developed in the 1950's and revolutionized psychiatric treatment of psychotic and often violent patients. Later, conventional (typical) neuroleptics such as the butyrophenone haldol (haloperidol)was (still is) effecatious in treating schizophrenic patients with aggresive tendencies and the dibenzoxapines (e.g., loxapine) are often used to treat the agitated aggressive behavior of dementia as well as sel-injurious behavior. Presently, the novel (atypical) neuroleptics such as the benzisoxazoles (e.g., risperidone) and the dibenzodiazipines (e.g., clozapine) are utilized to treat agitated agressive behavior in individuals suffering from various psychoses (especially, schizophrenia - although they are also utilized in autism, tourette's syndrome, conduct disorders and dementia). In fact, it is very common for psychiatrists to switch more violent schizophrenic patients from haloperidol (conventional) to risperidone (novel) to limit side-effects-EPS (especially tardive dyskinesia) and maintain control over aggresive behaviour even though more effacatious (new) neuroleptics for schizophrenia such as olazapine and quetiapine are available. However, if you want a complete and "accurate" history of the discovery and use of neuroleptics (including aggresive behavior) in North American hospitals (begining in the 1950's) you must definitely take a look at what I consider is the definitive psychiatric-historical book on the subject:

Gelman, S. (1999). Medicating schizophrenia: A history. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Good luck with your research Cyril.

-- Pete Economou (peteecon@yorku.ca), July 11, 2002.


If you could get access to them, the 8th Edition of The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy published in 1950 and the 9th Edition published in 1956 would likely be excellent resources to answer your question. They likely included chapters on Psychiatric Disorders.

-- Roger K. Thomas (rkthomas@uga.edu), July 11, 2002.

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