EXPERIMENTALLY PRODUCED PSYCHOSES
American Journal of Psychiatry – February 01, 1951
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Synthetic mescaline was administered intravenously to 20 schizophrenic patients and 10 healthy controls, revealing significant effects on both groups. In healthy individuals, mescaline induced notable changes, while in schizophrenic patients, it exacerbated symptoms or triggered latent psychoses. Following psychosurgery, mescaline reactivated psychotic symptoms in previously improved patients, though their reactions were less intense than before treatment. This highlights mescaline's complex role in schizophrenia, suggesting potential implications for understanding psychosis and developing therapeutic strategies within psychiatry and psychology.
Abstract
Intravenous injection of synthetic mescaline was used in a group of schizophrenic patients and on "normal" voluntary controls. The changes produced by mescaline in "normals" were described. In addition, the observations were made that mescaline is able to underscore in patients suffering from schizophrenia their schizophrenic symptoms or able to precipitate schizophrenic psychoses in persons suffering from latent schizophrenia. Different "therapeutic measures" were discussed as applied to the mescaline-produced abnormal mental states. Mescaline was also given to a number of patients before and after psychosurgery. It was found that with mescaline it was possible to reactivate the psychosis in patients who improved after psychosurgery but that their response to the drug was quantitatively less conspicuous than before.