Anxiety in schizophrenia. The responses to chlordiazepoxide in an intensive design study

Abstract

Six anxious schizophrenic patients who were maintained with phenothiazines participated in a double-blind intensive design study of chlordiazepoxide and placebo for 12 weeks or longer. There were substantial differences between patients in their responses to chlordiazepoxide: two patients experienced significant and conspicuous relief of distress and reduction of typical schizophrenic symptoms. In another patient the differences, although statistically significant, were clinically less striking. In the three remaining patients no differences were observed between responses to the two treatments except that one patient was more depressed with chlordiazepoxide than with placebo. The findings suggest that there are at least two kinds of anxiety in schizophrenia. A few anxious schizophrenic patients apparently benefit more from a combination of a phenothiazine with chlordiazepoxide than from a phenothiazine alone.