Trial of 'Piracetam' in chronic schizophrenia.

I G Pryce and C Gray BJP 1978, 132:205. Access the most recent version at DOI: 10.1192/bjp.132.2.205a

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CORRESPONDENCE

205

DALTON, K. 43842.

(z@76) Prenatal progesterone and educa

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DEAR SIR,

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British

SPECIALIST NURSES
DEAR SIR,

It was with dismay and concern that I read

Professor Goldberg's frivolous review of Nursing in Behavioural Psychotherapy: An Advanced Clinical Role for
Nurses (Journal, September 1977 i@i, p 320). It is

A double-blind cross-over trial of Piracetam (2 = pyrrolido@ie acetamide) v placebo has recently been

completed on sixteen male and eleven female chronic

schizophrenic in-patients aged 20 to 65 years, most of

whom were severely disabled despite medication and

sustained efforts at rehabilitation. The trial was stimulated by work suggesting that Piracetam improves interhemispheric transfer of visual informa tion across the corpus callosum (Buresova and Bures,
1976) and reports of impairment of transfer of

unfortunate that so eminent a professor should treat an important development as a joke. Not only is it reactionary and prejudiced but it does not attempt to make a constructive critical appraisal of well researched work in which nurses and patients are so
closely involved. The attitude adopted by Professor other

Goldberg takes no cognisance of a successful attempt

to help sick people more quickly than might

information across the corpus callosum in chronic

schizophrenia (Rosenthal and Bigelow, 1972; Beau

mont and Dimond, 1973). The drug has been used in a variety of psychiatric conditions on the continent, especially in chronic organic states where memory is impaired (Abuzzahab et al, i@'@; Dencker and Lindberg, 1977). The dosage was i,6oo mg of Piracetam three times a day for four weeks, in addition to the long-term psychotropic medication the patients were already receiving. Assessment of r@ponse was by Wing's Symptom and Behaviour

wise be the case. This extension of the nurse's role is but one of a series of advances being made by nurses in the clinical field and should be treated with the
courtesy it deserves.
EILEEN SKELL.ERN

Chief Nursing Officer, The Bethiem Royal Hospital,

and The Maudsley Hospital,

Denmark Hill,

LondonSE5 8AZ
Dx.A@a Sm, It is a pity that Professor Goldberg should utilize his obviously fertile imagination to do gross injustice

Rating Scales.
The drug failed to produce any significant change in either symptoms or behaviour in this group of patients. There was no apparent effect on blood

chemistry, nor were any side-effects detected. A

<letailed report is available on request. I. G. Paxca
s CHARLES GnAy

to what is an important development for nurses, as well asa potentially importantherapeutic t advance for psychiatric treatment in this country.
Psychiatric nurse therapists do not wish to fly the

Whitchurc/s Hospital, Whitchurch, Cardiff CF@7XB

aeroplane' but merely to ease the burden of the pilot by providing specialist intervention for patients who
might, through lack of time or other resources, go