A multicenter controlled trial in phobic-obsessive psychoneurosis. The effect of chlorimipramine and of its combinations with haloperidol and diazepam

Abstract

• 1.

  1. Chlorimipramine has been reported to be effective in the treatment of phobic-obsessive patients. It has been widely used in combination with anti-anxiety compounds such as benzodiazepines, or with major tranquillizers, such as butirophenones, but no clear-cut superiority of anyone of these treatments has been yet established.

• 2.

  2. A multicenter trial was performed to compare the therapeutic characteristics of chlorimipramine alone with those displayed in combination with haloperidol or diazepam in patients showing an obsessive and/or phobic sympomatology.

• 3.

  3. A total of 54 inpatients of both sexes were admitted to a 60-day trial and were treated in double-blind conditions. The experiment was carried-out in three groups: chlorimipramine, chlorimipramine and diazepam, and chlorimipramine and haloperidol.

• 4.

  4. The psychopatological picture and the evaluation of clinical efficacy was assessed by a battery of instruments: the MMPI, the RSD of Hamilton, the BPRS of Overall and Gorham and the IMPS of Lorr. For safety a check-list of side-effects has been used.

• 5.

  5. After statistical processing, the data gathered from various centres seem to indicate differentiated types of response in all three treatments. These data suggest a possible differentiation in the use of the three treatments.