Posted by Jim on May 28, 1999, at 23:29:47
In reply to Menninger's diagnosis, posted by Jim on May 28, 1999, at 17:38:45
This kind of answers my own question regarding the antianxiety reducing potential of neuroleptics. It's from a link on Dr. Bob's site: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~lwh/drugs/chap04.htm#The Tranquilizers (Phenothiazines)
The rest of the online book is very good, too.The Tranquilizers (Phenothiazines)
Chlorpromazine was not, perhaps, the perfect lytic that Laborit was seeking, but it was close. When administered to patients prior to surgery, the effect was
remarkable. The drug did not cause heavy sedation, thus allowing the patients to remain aware of their environment. They could carry on conversations, answer the
physician's questions, and clearly were in contact with their environment. But the drug did cause a certain indifference to stressful stimuli, greatly reducing the normal
preoperative fears, reducing the amount of anesthesia that was necessary to conduct the surgery, and most importantly, reducing dramatically the likelihood of death
resulting from surgical shock. Virtually all of these effects are caused through action on the brain rather than the peripheral nervous system. It was an autonomic
stabilizer that worked by virtue of changing the perception of the environment. It was, in the words of Laborit, a Pavlovian deconditioner--stimuli that previously
elicited fear were as benign following chlorpromazine administration as they would be if experimental extinction had taken place.
poster:Jim
thread:6750
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990501/msgs/6776.html