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Commentary; Present status of clinical psychopharmacology
Author(s) -
Berger Frank M.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1002/cpt1976196725
Subject(s) - enthusiasm , mental disease , psychotherapist , psychopharmacology , value (mathematics) , psychoanalytic theory , psychology , medicine , psychiatry , social psychology , machine learning , computer science
During the first half of the twentieth century American psychotherapy was dominated by the psychoanalytic and behavioristic concepts of mental disease. The view that at least some mental disturbances may have a physical or biological basis, although held and argued by many physicians since antiquity, did not gain wide acceptance until the discovery of the psychotherapeutic drugs in the 1950s. 1 The widespread use of these drugs since that time has not only greatly changed the treatment of mental disorders but has also substantially improved our understanding of mental disease. Enough time has now passed to temper the initial enthusiasm that followed the introduction of these drugs and to accumulate enough experience in their use to make this an appropriate time to evaluate their effectiveness and value in the treatment of mental diseases.