Phenothiazines in Prevention of Psychiatric Hospitalization

Abstract

This paper is the third in a series of investigations into the factors influencing hospitalization of schizophrenic outpatients. In a previous publication it was shown that chlorpromazine had a marked effect in reducing the incidence of hospitalization among ambulatory chronic schizophrenics.¹ Further exploration revealed that although chlorpromazine was most effective early in treatment, its effectiveness diminished progressively over time.² In contrast, the hospitalization rates for placebo treated patients were similar regardless of length of treatment exposure. The data presented in the latter publication indicate that duration of treatment exposure is an important variable to be considered when evaluating the effectiveness of drug treatment in influencing the incidence of hospitalization among chronic schizophrenic outpatients.² The suggestion that length of treatment exposure plays an important role in determining the results obtained with phenothiazine treatment has many implications. The