Evipan used in the investigation of some chronic dermatoses.

I tho early years of the war, a group of twenty service patients was investigated while under the influence of evipan given intravenously. They were patients in the wards of an Emergency Medical Service Unit. This procedure was conveniently termed " narcoanalysis " by Horsley (1943). A small group of dermatological cases had been examined psycliologically by this method by Campbell (1938). The present study was carried out on patients selected from a number with recurrent or chronic dermatoses, in whom progress had been unaccountably delayed. The patients, some of whom had been hospitalized many times before admission to this Unit, were rested, were not exposed as far as could be ascertained to cutaneous irritants, and wore treated by orderlies and nursing staff. In many cases, symptoms and signs were oxaggorated ; for example itching would bo described as severe and intolerable, altliough cutaneous changes wore slight, tho general condition had not deteriorated, and the observed hours of sleep were not significantly restricted. I t was evident that in many of our patients the cutaneous disorder was protracted by psychological factors. Excoriations, particularly when deep, were reliable signs in this direction. A short Evipan analysis cannot take the place of a caroful personal history hy a trained jjsychologist and of his evaluation of personality and the effects of mental trauma. Dermatologists