Drugs and “Moral Treatment”

Abstract

In recent years the introduction of neuroleptic drugs into large overcrowded mental hospitals has been accompanied by a striking improvement in their atmospheres which have become more therapeutic and less custodial (W.H.O., 42). Accordingly it has become possible, often for the first time, to organize effective programmes of rehabilitation for the chronic schizophrenics who still constitute a high proportion of mental hospital populations (Brill and Patton, 7). The new programmes have usually included group nursing, planned activities, and graded incentives for patients to strive to regain their positions in society. This approach has placed emphasis on the patient as an individual, having rights and responsibilities, safe, trustworthy, and, with assistance, often able to help himself and others (W.H.O., 41). Because of these changes in the State Hospital, it is not surprising that the literature has been flooded with enthusiastic reports and wholehearted endorsement of the merits of a variety of neuroleptic agents.