Phenothiazine Deaths: A Critical Review
ROGER PEELE M.D.1, and
IDELLA S. VON LOETZEN M.A.2
1 Director, Area D Community Mental Health Center of Saint Elizabeths Hospital, National Institute of Mental Health, Washington, D.C. 20032 and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
2 Research Associate, Area D Community Mental Health Center of Saint Elizabeths Hospital, National Institute of Mental Health, Washington, D.C. 20032
To determine whether "phenothiazine death" is a valid entity, the authors examined case studies in the literature for other explanations of these sudden, unexpected, autopsy-negative deaths. The results of their comparisons of a large number of phenothiazine deaths and deaths due to lethal catatonia raise doubts as to the validity of phenothiazine death as an entity.
