Effect of Sodium Amytal and Amphetamine Sulfate on Mental Set in Schizophrenia

It usually is stated that schizophrenia is characterized by three primary symptoms: a disturbance in attention, a disturbance in the association of ideas and a disturbance in affect. The other features of this disorder are regarded as secondary elaborations of these primary symptoms. The relationships among the primary symptoms and between the primary and the secondary symptoms are of interest from a variety of standpoints: etiologic, diagnostic, prognostic and psychopathologic. Increased interest in these topics followed the reports of Lindemann 1 that sodium amytal injected intravenously in smaller than sleep-producing amounts often caused a profound change in the mental status of a patient, sometimes temporarily changing his reactions to relatively normal ones. Thus, in the case of schizophrenia, the attention may be improved, the thought processes may become more logical and the affect may appear more adequate. There is also an increased ease of communication, so that the patient may