DRUG TREATMENT OF PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS IN GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTICE.

It is possible for general medical practitioners to successfully treat many psychotic patients in their offices, provided they have some training in psychiatric diagnosis and in psychotherapy procedures appropriate to the general situation of the practicing non-psychiatrist physician. This has become so because of recent developments in psychopharmacology.Drugs are now available which permit control of the symptoms of psychoses with reasonable specificity. The phenothiazines are appropriate for patients with schizophrenic psychoses. The "target symptoms" indicate which one to use. The affective psychoses are best handled with dibenzazipine anti-depressants. With proper medication and frequent short supportive interviews, many such patients can be successfully treated.