Reserpine in anxiety states

Five-Year Follow-Up of Results of Reserpine Therapy in Mental Hospital Practice

Reserpine was first used extensively in mental hospital practice in this country in 1954. Conflicting reports as to its usefulness in psychiatry have appeared and, before a standardized assessment of the drug could be made, investigators examined the combined use of reserpine and chlorpromazine (Barsa and Kline, 3). Hare et al. (10) have pointed out that there is a sequence of events in the investigation of a new drug that is associated with a fluctuating enthusiasm as to its usefulness, and it is our belief that a commentary now on the present use of reserpine would not be out of place. Kline (13) was one of the first to describe the use of reserpine in American psychiatric practice, and his report was shortly followed in this country by those of Foote (8) and Glynn (9). These early studies were essentially preliminary investigations and concerned the use of reserpine in groups of patients, sometimes small, or of one sex. Other more extensive North American investigations by Noce et al. (17) and Azima et al. (2) showed that the beneficial effect of the drug was not as widespread as originally thought, even with adequate dosage, in schizophrenia. Barsa and Kline (4) produced further conflicting evidence that the drug was of value in all kinds of mental illness, although in a later paper in 1956 (3) they outlined the comparative uses of reserpine when contrasted with chlorpromazine.