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‘Mandrax’ as an Hypnotic for Psychiatric In-patients: A Comparative Trial with Chloral Hydrate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

John D. Adamson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg 3, Manitoba, Canada; and Coordinator of Psychiatric Research, Department of Health and Social Services, Province of Manitoba

Extract

Mandrax (Roussel, Ltd.) is a combination of methaqualone 250 mg. and diphenhydramine 25 mg. and there have been several reports on its efficacy, as an hypnotic, which are cited by Derbez and Grauer (1967) and Haider (1968). It has been found to have approximately the same potency as various commonly used hypnotics, and it has been particularly recommended because of indications that overdosage is not associated with severe respiratory depression, as is the case with barbiturates (Lawson and Brown, 1967), and also because it does not reduce REM sleep as barbiturates do (Davison et al., 1970). It is stated to be particularly suitable for elderly patients. There is however, only one published trial on its use with patients with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses (Burke and Mahadevan, 1966); it is not specified in that report whether the patients were acute or chronic.

Type
Abstract
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

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References

Burke, H., and Mahadevan, M. (1966). ‘Preliminary clinical trial of a new hypnotic combination—Mandrax.’ Clinical Trials J., 3, 417–9.Google Scholar
Davison, K., Duffy, J. P., and Osselton, J. W. (1970). ‘A comparison of sleep patterns in natural and mandrax and tuinal-induced sleep.’ Can. Med. Ass. J., 102, 506–8.Google ScholarPubMed
Derbez, R., and Grauer, H. (1967). ‘A sleep study and investigation of a new hypnotic compound in a geriatric population.’ Can. med. Ass. J., 97, 1389–93.Google Scholar
Haider, I. (1968). ‘A comparative trial of Mandrax and dichloral-phenazone.’ Brit. J. Psychiat., 114, 465–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, A. A. H., and Brown, S. S. (1967). ‘Acute methaqualone (Mandrax) poisoning.’ Scott. med. J., 12, 63–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overall, J. E., and Gorham, D. R. (1962). ‘The brief psychiatric rating scale.’ Psychol. Rep., 10, 799812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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