The Diagnostic Use of the Amylobarbitone Interview Among Patients with Psychotic Illnesses

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110

Patients with affective disorder, schizophrenia, and schizo-affective illness, as well as normal control subjects were studied by means of a structured interview before and after the intravenous injection of amylobarbitone (amobarbitol sodium, Amytal). Intoxication with Amytal was never responsible for one illness taking the appearance of another. Approximately one-half of patients with an affective disorder appeared unchanged under Amytal; the remainder showed less concern with their depressive symptoms. Schizophrenic patients demonstrated additional schizophrenic symptoms, or, in one case, remained unchanged. Schizo-affective (schizophreniform) patients responded to Amytal in varied fashions. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Data concerning sedation thresholds indicated that no statistically significant association could be demonstrated between anxiety symptoms and sedation thresholds. Likewise, depressed patients with high sedation thresholds were found not to have a depressive syndrome similar to that usually described as neurotic.