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Comparative studies of chlorpromazine and imipramine

III. Critical flicker fusion thresholds in psychiatric patients

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Summary

The effect of the chronic administration of chlorpromazine and imipramine on critical flicker fusion (CFF) in a group of cooperative, voluntarily hospitalized psychiatric patients was investigated in a doubleblind, fixed-dosage, placebo-controlled study. When retested after five weeks while receiving 1200 mg daily of chlorpromazine (with procyclidine added) or 300 mg daily of imipramine, the chlorpromazine treated group showed a significant decrement in CFF threshold when compared with either the placebo or imipramine group; with imipramine there was a non-significant decline in CFF as compared with placebo.

Both drugs increased group variance as compared with placebo. The increased variability was significantly related to age.

The drug induced-changes were discussed with reference to the importance of individual differences.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Eric Karp

    Present address: Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York 61, N.Y.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychiatry, Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, New York, USA

    Eric Karp & Max Pollack

Authors
  1. Eric Karp
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  2. Max Pollack
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Additional information

Supported, in part, by Grant MY-2715, U.S. Public Health Service. We are indebted to Drs. Max Fink and Donald F. Klein for their critical reading of the manuscript, and to Dr. Dean J. Clyde, George Washington University, Biometrie Laboratory, for his help with the statistical analysis.

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Karp, E., Pollack, M. Comparative studies of chlorpromazine and imipramine. Psychopharmacologia 4, 452–458 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403350

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00403350

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