A comparative clinical study for the evaluation of antianxiety agents, (lorazepam, diazepam and placebo), in neurosis

To evaluate the clinical effects of lorazepam on neurosis, a double-blind controlled trial by group comparison procedure was carried out using diazepam and placebo as control drugs. The clinical improvement and aggravation rates by means of a variety of assessment of change were compared between each of the two active drugs and placebo. The superiority, characteristics of therapeutic effects and minor side effects of lorazepam which is similar to those of diazepam, a standard benzodiazepine anxiolytic for the treatment of neurosis, were demonstrated. From this study, many important problems which might be influenced upon the outcome of the pharmacotherapy on neurotics, such as positive and negative placebo effects, aggravation and drop-out during the trial, were also evaluated.

Some methodological considerations for the clinical evaluation of neuroleptics--comparative effects of clozapine and haloperidol on schizophrenics

For the purpose of evaluating objectively the characteristics of clinical effects of clozapine and haloperidol, a double-blind comparative trial was conducted on 91 schizophrenic in-patients. The changes of symptoms were assessed by means of several psychiatric and behavioral rating scales. The results were analyzed by means of nonparametric statistical methods. Furthermore, application of multivariate analysis was considered. After 12 weeks of treatment, though no significant difference in general improvement rate was noted between the two groups, a marked different spectrum of clinical effects was observed according to the rating scales. Clozapine is superior in anti-delusional, contact-promoting and sedative anxiolytic effect, while haloperidol is superior in anti-autistic effect. Among the side-effects, extrapyramidal symptoms appeared significatly more severe in the haloperidol group. The frequency of appearance of fever, was significantly greater in the clozapine group than the other. The four dropout cases of the clozapine group were all caused by fever. Through this clinical trial, clinical availability and validity of various statistical analytical methods were reconsidered.

Avian encephalomyelitis virus in chicken pancreatic cell cultures

Monolayer cell cultures consisting of epithelioid cells were made from pancreatic tissue of 10-to-13-day-old chicks. The maximum virus titer of the cell-culture fluid was obtained 8 days after inoculation with an embryo-adapted avian encephalomyelitis virus (AEV). Virus titers also increased in cell cultures inoculated with a chick-pancreas-passed AEV or a field isolant. Cell cultures inoculated with 3 strains of AEV maintained virus titers of 10(2.9)-10(3.7) 50% embryo-infective doses/ml for 15-20 days. In other cell cultures from pancreatic tissues of chicks preinfected orally with the chick-pancreas-passed AEV or the field isolant, the virus titers decreased for several days after cultivation and thereafter increased and persisted until at least the 25th or 30th day. Neither a cytopathic effect nor any inclusion body was observed in the cell cultures infected with AEV. No AEV-antigen-positive cell was detected by direct fluorescent-antibody technique.