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A Controlled Trial of Trifluoperazine in the Treatment of the Mentally Subnormal Patient

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

D. S. Sharpe*
Affiliation:
Botleys Park Hospital. Chertsey, Surrey

Extract

The treatment of mentally subnormal patients is often complicated by abnormal behaviour, usually consisting of a mixture of aggression towards either themselves or others, extreme noisiness, hyperkinesis and general anti-social conduct. Because this presents great difficulties, particularly from the nursing point of view, the aim of all whose task it is to care for these patients has been to improve this behaviour pattern. However, until recently the treatment has been largely custodial, coupled with large and frequent doses of sedatives, usually of the barbiturate group. The advent of “tranquillizing” drugs, particularly the phenothiazines, seems to offer the possibility of controlling these disorders without reducing the patient to a vegetative state.

Type
Therapeutic Trials
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1962 

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References

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