Chlorpromazine Used with an Intensive Occupational Therapy Program

Introduction Chronic schizophrenia accounts for approximately two out of three long-stay mental hospital patients in Great Britain.4Interest in the therapeutic approach to this enormous problem has been stimulated by the development of the tranquilizing agents, particularly chlorpromazine; and there is now an extensive literature reporting the use of this drug in chronic schizophrenia. The consensus appears to be that chlorpromazine is a useful treatment for this group of patients, especially when aggressiveness, overactivity, or psychotic tension is a prominent symptom, though even with this most widely used tranquilizer there have been isolated controlled studies with completely negative results.7 At the same time, partly arising from the evidence of numerous drug trials, there has been a renewed awareness that chronic mental hospital patients benefit from environmental changes, especially where increased activity and enhanced social interaction between patients and staff result.1,6,9Robin11concluded that occupational therapy had