PROPERTIES OF DRUGS

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23053, 22 June 1940, Page 12

PROPERTIES OF DRUGS

NEUROSES : / [From Our, Own -Correspondent! - - LONDON. May 28. ■ . In an address before the Medical Society of Individual Psychology, Dn Henry Dicks spoke of evipan and pentothal as two drugs possessing the property of inducing a happy state of mind. He said it was claimed that some people revealed secrets when these drugs were injected. By their use, patients could be put to sleep in about 15 seconds. Evipan was usefully applied in cases, of “hysterical conversion” and , amnesia, in which it seemed to be a more reliable substitute for hypnosis* The use of this drug -might prove to be a valuable method of giving quick relief in many cases of hysterical war neuroses,-where time has to be saved-' In cases where evipan was used 10 help in: the overcoming of resistance, during the progress of an analysis, tne. method had not been Uniformly successful, skid Dr. Dicks. This Was due to the unpredictable factor that botall patients displayed the necessary. “post-anaesthetic” state. > Evipan and allied substances couldtake the place of hypnosis in therapio; cure of hysterical pneumonia, put Were no substitute for the real worst of analysis of underlying conflicts. Dr* Dicks mentioned an experiment designed to test the power of evipan to cause a person to divulge information he wished to withhold, “such as might u be practised on criminals or ' prison* ■ ers.” This experiment proved a fail-* ure. Instances were given of characteristics which were entirely forgotten by the patients in their normal state.