Rauwolfia serpentina (serpasil) in psychiatry.

The therapeutic problem of satisfactorily controlling acute and chronic states of psychomotor excitement is an ever-present one confronting psychiatrists engaged in hospital practice. Admittedly, the application of current methods of treatment, such as systematic pharmacological sedation by means of barbiturates and other drugs or electroconvulsive therapy, will in most cases control excited behaviour. It is a common experience, however, that even after adequate and efficient treatment a number of patients either do not respond satisfactorily to these measures or exhibit a tendency to relapse fairly rapidly. Rauwolfia serpentina (" serpasil "), a new drug, is of undoubted value in the treatment of these cases and may in time supersede the established methods, which are not altogether free from disadvantages and risks, however much minimized by skilled and efficient application.