No abstract

Data obtained in two comparative controlled studies of neuroleptics were used to ascertain if there were some correlation between the degree of improvement in the mental state and the severity of extrapyramidal symptoms induced in patients receiving one or other of the following neuroleptics: trifluperidol, trifluoperazine, T.P.S.-23 and chlorpromazine. In this study patients are used as experimental units. For each trial, the importance of psychiatric symptoms has been measured with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the neurological syndrome with the “Bilan extra-pyramidal” (Extrapyramidal Rating Scale). It has been impossible to find a correlation between the antipsychotic and extrapyramidal-inducing properties of the neuroleptics we have studied.

Nine manic patients have been the subjects of a pilot study with a new thioxanthene derivative, thiothixene. Data obtained from two rating scales indicate a significant improvement of the mental and behavioural conditions after three weeks of treatment. Thiothixene like other well-known neuroleptics induces extra-pyramidal symptoms and this tends to confirm the fact that thiothixene is a neuroleptic. The drug was well tolerated; however, we observed a decrease of prothrombin time in four patients.