Agranulocytosis Associated with Chlorpromazine Therapy

Abstract

Chlorpromazine is proving to be a valuable adjunct in the therapy of many psychiatric and medical disorders. The possibility that occasional persons may develop agranulocytosis while being treated with this drug is not as widely appreciated as it might be. Chlorpromazine has been used at the University of Minnesota hospitals since the spring of 1954; during this time several hundred patients have received this medication for one or another reason. In addition to those cases in which chlorpromazine was prescribed by us we have seen many patients who have tried this medication before they were referred to us. The following is our only case so far encountered who has developed agranulocytosis. REPORT OF A CASE A 52-year-old white woman was referred to us for the first time on Feb. 1, 1955. She gave a history of becoming increasingly tense and nervous for several months. For a month prior to seeing