EXPERIENCE WITH TRIFLUOPERAZINE IN THE TREATMENT OF 100 CHRONIC ANERGIC SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS
LEON REZNIKOFF M.D.1
1 Clinical Director, Hudson County Hospital for Mental Diseases, Secaucus, N. J.
1. One hundred chronic anergic schizophrenics refractory to all previous therapy had been treated with trifluoperazine over a period of 3 to 12 months.
2. Twenty-one patients improved sufficiently well to be released from the hospital for convalescent care, another 35 patients made a fairly good institutional adjustment to the extent that they are participating actively in occupational and recreational departments; 44 remained unimproved.
3. Forty patients developed extrapyramidal symptoms, easily controlled by Artane, Cogentin or Aidneton.
4. The optimal dose had to be determined for each patient on an individual basis; some patients relapsed in a few days, if dosage was markedly reduced or discontinued, indicating that for these patients trifluoperazine therapy will have to be continued indefinitely.
5. No cases of jaundice, skin rash or agranulocytosis developed in any of these patients even after 12 months on the drug. No marked changes in weight or blood pressure were observed.
