A double-blind, placebo controlled, crossover trial of carbamazepine in overactive, severely mentally handicapped patients.

A double-blind, placebo controlled, crossover trial of carbamazepine in 12 severely and profoundly mentally retarded, overactive adult patients is described. The trial lasted 7 months and those patients in whom overactivity was the dominant problem responded to some degree to carbamazepine with a reduction in overactivity. This was particularly so in patients in whom overactivity was accompanied by some elevation of mood. Patients in whom overactivity was part of a wider spectrum of multiple behaviour disorders showed a scatter of responses. There was no relationship between response to carbamazepine and the presence or absence of epilepsy. The trial identified a small group of mentally retarded patients in whom carbamazepine might be clinically useful.