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ROBERT SHELDON GANTZ, MD; DAVID PETER BIRKETT, MB

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1965;12(6):586-588.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

WE RECENTLY studied a group of schizophrenic outpatients to find out if reduction in phenothiazine dosage, ordered by a physician, is a significant cause of readmission to a hospital.

Previous controlled studies have shown the deleterious effect, in schizophrenia, of withdrawing phenothiazines.^1-8 Some of these have been of the type where the phenothiazine was withdrawn and replaced by a placebo^1-7 with the patient's physician remaining "blind." In several of these studies readmission to a hospital has been used as a criterion of deterioration.^2-4,8

It might be supposed that when the reduction in dosage is deliberately ordered by a physician, the deleterious results would be less likely than when the drug is capriciously stopped as part of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, experiment. (Analogy with other drugs, such as digitalis for heart failure, or steroids for rheumatoid arthritis, would certainly suggest this.) Forrest, however, has . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
NEWTOWN, CONN

From the Fairfield Hills Hospital, Residents in Psychiatry (Dr. Gantz and Dr. Birkett).

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Nov 27, 1964.

Reprint requests to 163 W Spring St, West Haven, Conn 06516 (Dr. Gantz).

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