THIORIDAZINE IN THE TREATMENT OF HOSPITALIZED ADOLESCENTS
DONALD B. RINSLEY M. D.1
1 Ado1escent Unit, Kansas Treatment Center for Children, Topeka State Hospital, Topeka, Kans.
1. Twenty adolescent psychiatric inpatients have received 100-800 mgm. total daily doses of thioridazine for varying times over a 2-year period while resident in a dynamically oriented, intensive treatment unit.
2. The use of thioridazine, as part of a more comprehensive plan of active treatment, has benefitted selected patients with anxiety as a basic part of their syndromes by promoting freer interaction with peers and therapeutic staff.
3. The only side effects we could attribute to the drug were a readily reversible parkinsonian syndrome on higher doses (400-800 mgs. total, daily) and subjective somnolence in most patients; the latter appeared not significantly to interfere with the patients' general psychomotor functions.
4. We conclude that both the anxiety-reducing effects of thioridazine plus its exceptionally low incidence of side effects among our patients justifies the conclusion that it is a highly effective neuroleptic agent for adolescent patients under the conditions in which we have used it(6, 7).
