•Une subvention fut offerte par Lederle Pharmaceu ticals pour la realisation de cette etude; directeur me dical; docteur Claude Gendron. Communication presentee a la session pleniaire As semble Annuelle de l'Association des

A comparative double-blind study of two antidepressant drugs, opipramol and amitriptyline, had been undertaken in neurotic and endogenous depressions. It was to be carried out simultaneously in a well-staffed university clinic and in an understaffed mental hospital. The depression rating scale used was the one constructed by Wechsler et al. Criteria to differentiate both entities were those described by Kiloh and Garside. It was hoped; 1) to compare the efficacy of both drugs; 2) to compare differences in milieu in regard to the two types of depression and the drugs used; 3) to test the hypothesis, by means of comparing scores on the DRS, that there exists a difference between neurotic and endogenous depressions. The trial could not be completed because it was very difficult to find neurotic depressions at the state hospital and endogenous depressions at the university clinic. Although the results could not be compared in terms of both institutions and no conclusion could be drawn as to the efficacy of either drugs in neurotic depressions because of too small a sample, it was nevertheless shown that amitriptyline was significantly superior to opipramol in endogenous depressions. Some methodological flaws of the present study were pointed out, namely, the lack of placebo in the neurotic group, the drawback of a flexible posology and the short observation period (4 weeks). Explanations were propounded to explicate the sampling difference between the two psychiatric institutions.

A comparative double-blind trial of butaperazine and prochlorperazine was carried out in 40 chronic schizophrenic patients. Subjects were matched in 20 pairs according to sex, age, duration of hospitalization, staff, ward and score on the B.P.R.S. Drugs were randomly allocated within each pair of patients and their effects evaluated according to the B.P.R.S. Posology was progressively increased up to 200 mg. daily but remained always equal for all patients. Results were analysed by non-parametric statistics for the B.P.R.S. and by an χ2 test for the global evaluation. Butaperazine and prochlorperazine showed a significant therapeutic efficacy throughout the twelve-week period. At the fourth and tenth week, prochlorperazine was significantly superior to butaperazine. However, at the twelfth week there was no significant difference in the efficacy of both drugs, as measured by the B.P.R.S. and the global evaluation. Beyond 100 mg. daily of both drugs a plateau was reached which higher doses did not influence. Side effects made their appearance sooner with butaperazine but at the end of the trial the frequency of side effects was comparable with both drugs. A highly significant positive correlation between raters adds weight to our results*.

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