Abstract

This paper describes a clinical trial of the effect of 'gerioptil on certain psychological dimensions in a group of senile patients. Gerioptil is the trade name of a preparation which contains Professor Anna Aslan's compound H3 together with a variety of vitamins and vitamin derivatives. It is manufactured by a German drug firm, but is available to hospitals and general practitioners in Britain. H3 is the name given by Professor Aslan, of the Geriatric Institute in Bucharest, to diethylaminoethyl para-aminobenzoate, better known as procaine. This substance has been used for half a century or so as a local anaesthetic, and from time to time for other purposes, including coronary and peripheral vascular disease, allergic states, and rheumatoid arthritis, although for these lesser-known uses it has been super seded by other more efficient or more convenient remedies. During the last few years, however, a number of papers have appeared, many from Professor Aslan and her colleagues (1959) themselves, advocating the use of H3 in a wide group of disorders, including senility and the physical and psychiatric syndromes seen in association with it. However, much criticism has been levelled at the clinical reports of these workers, whose papers fall below the standards of statistical method, scientific control, and trial procedure which the modern clinician is entitled to expect from workers making the extensive therapeutic claims that have been advanced by this group. The evidence which Aslan puts forward cannot rival her therapeutic optimism ; frequently there are impressive clinical reports and anecdotes, but the use of controls and standardized procedures are not apparent. These criticisms have been the subject of a leading article in the British Medical Journal (1959a). Professor Aslan herself delivered a lecture on H3 in November, 1959, and this has also been reported with considerable criticism in the British Medical Journal (1 959b). Accordingly, since with this freely available prepara tion there appeared to be a discrepancy between the therapeutic claims on the one hand and the acceptable evidence of its value on the other, it seemed suitable to make it the subject of a controlled trial.

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