Chlormezanone in Anxiety : A Drug Rediscovered?
KARL RICKELS M.D.1,
JORGE A. PEREIRA-OGAN M.D.2,
W. GEORGE CASE M.D.2,
IRMA CSANALOSI M.D.2,
MERRILL J. MIRMAN D.O.3,
JULIET E. NATHANSON M.D.3, , and
LAWRENCE C. PARISH M.D.3
1 Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, 203 Piersol Building, University Hospital, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, and Director, Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Philadelphia General Hospital
2 Research Psychiatrists, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, 203 Piersol Building, University Hospital, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, and Director, Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Philadelphia General Hospital
3 Member of the Private Practice Research Group, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, 203 Piersol Building, University Hospital, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, and Director, Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Philadelphia General Hospital
The efficacy of chlormezanone, an infrequently prescribed minor tranquilizer, was tested in a six-week double-blind trial involving 154 anxious outpatients. The results showed that chlormezanone (800 mg./day) was significantly more effective than placebo and was equal in effectiveness to chlordiazepoxide (40 mg./day). Chlormezanone produced significantly more sedation and more side effects, but no more attrition, than chlordiazepoxide. Furtherstudies confirming these results could establish chlormezanone as a useful antianxiety agent.
