The origin of a differentiated neuropsychopharmacotherapy for children and adolescents: an analysis of psycho- and neuropharmacology in the 1940s and 50s

Abstract

The origin of a differentiated approach to neuropsychopharmacotherapy in children and adolescents can be traced back to the 1940s and 50s. Certain clinical disorders in the range of psychiatry and neurology were treated with a multiplicity of substances. We conducted an exclusive screening of 700 medical records of patients under 18 years of age from a psychiatric university hospital in Jena (from 1942–1945) and 89 files of children who attended Trüper’s approved school in Jena between 1946 and 1954. Differentiated therapies were administered for ailments such as acute anxiety states, erethism, hyperkinetic syndrome, enuresis, migraine, sleep disturbance, epilepsy, Sydenham’s chorea, spasticity, neuralgia, neuritis, dizziness, pain syndrome, tetany, and syphilis. Interventions for mental disorders were relatively unspecific before the development of neuroleptic and antidepressant agents. During this time, multitudes of treatments were implemented for neurovegetative disorders, psychoneuroses, and different kinds of psychopathies. Barbiturates were administered in both pure and mixed forms. Additionally, since mental disorders were frequently caused by physical disorders, they could be eliminated or improved by the use of chemotherapeutics. Other somatic therapies like convulsive shock treatment with camphor and cardiazol, malaria treatments, hypoglycemic shock therapy, and electroconvulsive treatment have been applied in patients with schizophrenia.