[Current status of the clinical evaluation of psychotropic drugs].

This paper deals with the analysis of different research conceptions and designs, according to different areas: I. Human Pharmacology and Toxicology; II. Therapeutic prescriptions; III. Therapeutic effects; IV. Thorough clinical testing. There is a strongly felt -eed of universally acknowledged rating scales for the assessment of the effects psychothropic drugs have on mental diseases. The lack of experimental models, together with the wide span of psychodinamic conceptions, overemphasizes the need of such an instrument for evaluative purposes. A review is made of Patient Data Inventories, Side Effects Detection, Overall and Gorham Psychiatric Scales, Hamilton Depression Scale, Zung Self-Testing Scale, Wittenborn Psychiatric Scale, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Taylor Anxiety Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Beck Depression Scale, the "100 mm" Test and "d2" Test. Some remarks are made on the usefulness of non-parametrical statistical techniques in comparison with parametrical ones, requiring a normal distribution of frequencies and being unfit to operate in case of nominal and ordinal scales. The author emphasizes the need to avoid automatic translation of results pertaining to one population into another different one. Likewise, standardized classification scales obtained by the physician through interviews should be linked to self-evaluation scales simultaneously used by patients.