Abstract
1) Thirty-five long-term chronic female mental hospital patients were selected on the basis of their relatively stable pharmacotherapeutic and behavioural histories, and gradually switched from active medications to placebos. Following a variable time on placebo, those whose behaviour had not significantly changed were then taken off pills altogether. The purposes and true nature of this procedure were effectively obscured from staff and patients alike.
2) It was discovered that only a minority of patients objectively required the maintenance medication which all had been receiving; a larger number did require active psychotropic drugs from time to time; and just over half showed no significant requirement for pharmacotherapy at any time during an eight-month period.
3) It was inferred from these results that the medication practices in this particular (but not atypical) mental hospital setting were more relevant to the traditions of pharmacotherapy and to nursing staff morale, than to the objective psychiatric requirements of the patients.