Summary
An experiment is described in which chlordiazepoxide or placebo was administered to a group of low anxious normal male volunteers with and without instructions of a set (expectation) that the drugs would decrease their feelings of hostility and anxiety. The data indicated that chlordiazepoxide alone, and expectation alone, each increase hostility scores, but that when combined together, there was no such increase in baseline hostility levels. Introduction of set after hostility levels were increased served to further increase rather than reverse these scores. Drug, placebo, expectation or the combination of drug and expectation had no effect on anxiety scores.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ayd, F. J., Jr.: A critical appraisal of chlordiazepoxide. J. Neuropsychiat. 3, 177–180 (1962).
Buss, A. H., and Ann. Durkee: An inventory for assessing different kinds of hostility. J. cons. Psychol. 21, 4 (1957).
Cohen, S.: Chlordiazepoxide in clinical practice. Dis. nerv. Syst. (Suppl.) 22, 28–33 (1961).
Cohler, J., L. Grinspoon, R. I. Shader, and S. Chatterjee: Behavioral correlates of the guessing game. Side-effects and double-blind studies. Arch. gen. Psychiat. 15, 279–287 (1966).
DiMascio, A., and G. L. Klerman: Experimental human psychopharmacology: The role of non-drug factors. In Dynamics of Psychiatric Drug Therapy. G. J. Sarwer-Foner, Ed. Springfield, Ill.: Ch. C. Thomas 1960.
Fisher, S.: On the relationship between expectation and drug response. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 3, 125–126 (1962).
—, J. O. Cole, K. Rickels, and E. H. Uhlenhuth: Drug set interaction: The effect of expectation on drug response in outpatients. In Neuropsychopharmacology. P. B. Bradley, F. Flugle and P. Hoch, Ed., vol. 3, pp. 149–156. Amsterdam: Elsevier 1964.
Frankenhauser, M., B. Post, R. Hagdahl, and B. Wrangsjoe: Effects of a depressant drug as modified by experimentally induced expectation. Percept. Motor Skills 18, 513–522 (1964).
Gardos, G., A. DiMascio, C. Salzman, and R. I. Shader: Differential actions of chlordiazepoxide and oxazepam on hostility. Arch. gen. Psychiat. 8, 757–760 (1968).
Hollister, L. E.: Withdrawal reaction from chlordiazepoxide (Librium). Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 2, 63–68 (1961).
Honigfeld, G.: Non-specific factors in treatment: 1. Review of placebo reactors and placebo reactions. Dis. nerv. Syst. 25, 145–156 (1964).
Ingram, I. M., and G. D. Timbury: Side-effects of librium. Lancet 1960 II, 766.
Penick, S. B., and S. Fisher: Drug-set interaction: Psychological and physiological effects of epinephrine under differential expection. Psychosom. Med. 27, 177–182 (1965).
Tobin, J. M., I. F. Bird, and D. F. Boyle: Preliminary evaluation of Librium (Ro 5-0690) in the treatment of anxiety reactions. Dis. nerv. Syst. (Suppl.) 21, 16–19 (1960).
Scheier, I. H., and R. B. Cattell: Handbook and test kit for the IPAT 8 parallel form anxiety battery. Institute for Personality and Ability Testing. Illinois: Champaign 1960.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Supported by: NIMH Grant # MH 12279-02.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Salzman, G., DiMascio, A., Shader, R.I. et al. Chlordiazepoxide, expectation and hostility. Psychopharmacologia 14, 38–45 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401533
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401533