In order to determine the psychopharmacological profile of tiapride, the authors carried out 3 studies. The first study of ten resistant psychiatric cases permitted us to detect the direction of later studies. The object of the second was to analyse the neurovisceral properties and the action of tiapride on somatic symptoms due to anxiety in 25 ambulatory patients. The last study was a therapeutic approach. Tiapride appears to be one of the best drugs for anxiety in one of the 3 following circumstances: a paroxysmal or chronic somatic expression, depression, or behaviour suggesting latent and masked psychosis or early psychosis. Tiapride is tolerated in the same way as a neuroleptic for even in low dosage (150-300 mg/day) may appear undesirable side effects of extrapyramidal type. On the other hand, and contrary to sulpiride, neuro-endocrine effects are exceptional.

Antipsychotic Agents↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Novel comparative profile of the clinical activity of antidepressive agents].

In order to develop practical criteria to guide in the selection of antidepressant medication according to depressive symptomatology, we propose a graphical representation of the clinical activity of 24 antidepressants according to a "star" model. Six parameters have been evaluated from 0 to 5 in comparison to reference drugs (rated 5) by 11 independent "blind" psychiatrists expert in pharmacotherapy. Three parameters were used as measures of therapeutic activity: antidepressant, psychostimulant, and anxiolytic, with iproniazide 75 mg/d, metamphetamine 15 mg/d, and diazepam 20 mg/d as reference drugs respectively. Three additional parameters assessed the level of side-effects: anticholinergic, sedative, and hypotensive, with atropine 0.75 mg/d, phenobarbital 200 mg/d, and iproniazide 75 mg/d as reference drugs respectively. The defined dose represented the standard maintenance daily dose for depressive outpatients. Mean values for each parameter, rounded off to the closest number, were used for the graphical representation. Results showed an excellent agreement among evaluators for the clinical profile of classical tricyclic and MAOI antidepressants, but serious divergences for the more recent drugs (e.g., viloxazine and mianserine), possibly reflecting more atypical or more variable clinical profile of these compounds.

Antidepressive Agents↗