CI-581, a derivative of phencyclidine, is an effective analgesic and anesthetic at doses of 1.0 to 2.0 mg per kilogram. Given intravenously, it acts within one minute and lasts 5 to 10 minutes depending on dose and individual variation. Repeat doses did not produce tachyphylaxis. Respiratory depression was slight and transient. Undesirable effects included hypertension, tachycardia, and psychic changes. Recovery from analgesia and coma typically occurred within 10 minutes, though electroencephalographic evidence indicated subjects were not fully normal for 1 to 2 hours. No liver or kidney toxicity was observed. The drug's effects resemble those of phencyclidine but are shorter-lasting, and it is proposed that the term 'dissociative anesthetic' describe the mental state it produces.
Research on indole hallucinogens and schizophrenia is hampered by a persistent divide: clinicians with access to schizophrenic patients lack advanced gas chromatographic and mass spectrographic facilities, while chemists with those tools cannot access suitable patient populations. Psychiatric research strategy, funding, and social and legal pressures around informed consent and commitment of the mentally ill further slow progress. In Michigan, these obstacles have become so severe that most research with mental patients has stopped. The authors argue that efforts to protect patients' rights are inadvertently discarding their rights to proper diagnoses and better treatments.