A clinical comparison of melperone and placebo in schizophrenic women on a milieu therapeutic ward.

Twenty schizophrenic women participated in a double-blind comparison of melperone (300 mg daily) and placebo lasting 4 weeks. All the patients received milieu treatment. Two patients in the melperone and four in the placebo group were removed from the study due to unsatisfactory therapeutic response. In the melperone group, there were significant reductions in psychotic morbidity. In the placebo group, there were occasional significant reductions of psychotic morbidity during but not at the end of treatment. The melperone-treated patients exhibited significantly lower morbidity scores than the placebo group after treatment for two and four weeks. The melperone group demonstrated significantly more adverse reactions than placebo-treated patients at the end of the study. The results support the view that melperone exerts an antipsychotic effect. The study is consistent with the opinion that milieu therapy should be combined with neuroleptics to achieve an optimal result in the treatment of an acute phase of schizophrenia.