Trials of lithium, chlorpromazine and amitriptyline in schizoaffective patients

Two drug trials in schizoaffective patients are reported. Nineteen "schizomanic" patients were treated for one month, on a double blind basis, with chlorpromazine or lithium and 41 "schizodepressive" patients with amitriptyline, chlorpromazine or both. In the schizodepressive patients there was a trend to a better response to chlorpromazine, but drug response generally was poor, only 20 per cent of patients recovering within the month. In the schizomanic patients lithium seemed as effective as chlorpromazine, which supports the view that these patients were suffering from a variant of mania.