Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:23:32.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Response of Depressed Patients to Methylamphetamine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

L. G. Kiloh ,
Megan Neilson  and
Gavin Andrews
L. G. Kiloh
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, The Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, N.S.W. 2036, Australia
Megan Neilson
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, The Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, N.S.W. 2036, Australia
Gavin Andrews
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, The Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, N.S.W. 2036, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1959, J. M. Roberts claimed that in 50 depressed women aged 40–60 years the response to the intravenous injection of 15 mg. methylamphetamine differentiated significantly between those diagnosed as ‘psychotic’ and those diagnosed as ‘neurotic’. Following the injection each patient was observed closely for two to three hours, and in the great majority one of two responses occurred. Either the patient experienced a ‘sustained period of general uplift of mood and a feeling of greater well-being'—the ‘normalization’ response; or the patient showed ‘an immediate, or almost immediate, intensification of symptoms, particularly a worsening of any agitation present, often together with a deepening of the depressive affect'—the ‘intensification’ response. In only two patients, both with neurotic depression, was it not possible to classify the response.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 125 , Issue 588 , November 1974 , pp. 496 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1974 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bischoff, A. (1951) Über eine therapeutische Verwendung der sogenannten ‘Weck-Amine’ in der Behandlung schizophrener Erregungzustände. Monatsschrift fur Psychiatrie und Neurologie, 121, 329–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fawcett, J. & Siomopoulos, V. (1971) Dextroamphetamine response as a possible predictor of improvement with tricyclic therapy in depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 25, 247–55.Google Scholar
Hobson, R. F. (1953) Prognostic factors in electric convulsive therapy. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 16, 275–81.Google Scholar
Jonas, D. (1954) The adjunctive use of an intravenous amphetamine derivative in psychotherapy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 119, 135–47.Google Scholar
Kiloh, L. G., Andrews, G., Blanchi, G. N. & Neilson, M. (1972a) On studying depression. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 6, 85–98.Google Scholar
Kiloh, L. G., Andrews, G. Neilson, M. & Blanchi, G. N. (1972b) The relationship of the syndromes called endogenous and neurotic depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 183–96.Google Scholar
Leader, (1970) Circadian rhythms. The Medical Journal of Australia, 2, 435–7.Google Scholar
Lehmann, H. E. & Ban, T. A. (1964) Notes from the logbook of a psychopharmacological research unit, II. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 9, 111–3.Google Scholar
Levine, J., Rinkel, M. & Greenblatt, M. (1948) Psychological and physiological effects of intravenous pervitin. American Journal of Psychiatry, 105, 429–34.Google Scholar
Liddell, D. W. & Well-Malherbe, H. (1953) The effects of methedrine and of lysergic acid diethylamide on mental processes and on the blood adrenaline level. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 16, 7–13.Google Scholar
Pennes, H. H. (1954) Clinical reactions of schizophrenics to sodium amytal, pervitin hydrochloride, mescaline sulfate, and D-lysergic acid diethyl-amide (LSD25). Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 119, 95–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, J. M. (1959) Prognostic factors in the electroshock treatment of depressive states. II. The application of specific tests. Journal of Mental Science, 105, 703–13.Google Scholar
Rudolf, G. de M. (1956) The treatment of depression with methylamphetamine. Journal of Mental Science, 102, 358–63.Google Scholar
Simon, S. L. & Taube, H. (1946) A preliminary study on the use of methedrine in psychiatric diagnosis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 104, 593–6.Google Scholar
Zung, W. W. K. (1965) A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 63–70.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.