Abstract
One hundred and seventeen long-term mental hospital patients, judged to be suitable for tranquillizing medication, were randomly assigned to three groups: one received trifluoperazine, one received chlorpromazine, and one received an inert placebo. Assessment of adjustment to hospital, by means of the Hospital Adjustment Scale (HAS), revealed no significant group differences in response to treatment after either three or six weeks. Comparison of each group's level of adjustment at the beginning, middle, and end of the experimental period showed a similar absence of significant differences. From these data it was concluded that there was no generalized improvement in adjustment associated with any of the treatment conditions.
Inspection of the HAS scores of the individuals in each group indicated that there was wide variability in the inter-individual responses to all three of the treatment conditions. The implications of these findings for the management of long-term patients and for further study, are discussed.