EXPERIMENTALLY PRODUCED PSYCHOSES

Intravenous synthetic mescaline was given to people with schizophrenia and to healthy volunteers. In healthy individuals, mescaline produced characteristic mental changes. In patients with schizophrenia, the drug intensified their existing symptoms and could trigger a full psychotic episode in those with latent schizophrenia. Various treatments were used to counter the abnormal mental states caused by mescaline. When given to patients who had improved after psychosurgery, mescaline could reactivate their psychosis, though the response was less pronounced than before surgery.

Study at a glance

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.