An open clinical study was conducted with
carpipramine in 100 hospitalized subjects presenting various
mental disorders. The therapeutic results on symptoms were assessed both as a whole and with the help of a rating scale. Doses varied from 50 to 400 mg per day.
Carpipramine seems to be particularly efficient on
schizophrenias, 66 cases of which were tested. The best results were observed in hebephrenic forms and depressive syndroms during the illness; in these indications,
carpipramine exerts a clear psychomotor stimulating activity which is useful in decreasing indifference, apathy and ideomotor slowness.
Schizophrenias with paranoid delusions or depersonalization anxiety tend to be somehow aggravated.
Carpipramine does not seem to be a true
antidepressant despite its desinhibitory properties. The compound proves useful in deficits of the psychomotor tone such as those occuring in psychasthenia or the deficit syndrom which follows withdrawal from
opiates. Clinical and
biological tolerances seem to be excellent and extrapyramidal side effects are exceptional.
Carpipramine may be considered as a strongly desinhibitory
neuroleptic agent which bears some resemblance to
antidepressants because of its psychoanaleptic effect. The authors raise the question of possible
antipsychotic properties in higher doses in relation to pharmacological data and a bipolar,
antipsychotic and predominantly desinhibitory, therapeutic action.