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Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 ST-CS-01-169-72 July 1972 PART V PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY IN THE USSR SECTION I -— GENERAL 1. (U) Since ancient times, men have been aware of the fact that plant and animal products can induce desirable or undesirable psychological effects. For example, a primitive faith in the psychological effects of drugs is evident in the continued use of philters and potions to induce love and hate. Hippocrates proclaimed that the brain was the organ of the mind, a view still not held by those of dualistic persuasion. 2. (U) Before the twentieth century, when little was known about the pathophysiology of somatic disease and even less about mental disease, remedies were largely effective on a psychological basis. However, substances long known to have true psychophar- macological actions were opium and wine. These were employed not only to treat disease but also to make life more bearable. During the nineteenth century, the development of the science of chemistry made possible the discovery of agents with relatively selective effects upon the central nervous system. The nineteenth century saw the development of nitrous oxide, diethyl ether, sedatives, and hypnotics. However, until the mid-1950s there was little real progress in clinical psychopharmacology. The development of the phenothiazine drugs in the 1950s saw the augmentation of synthetic agents for therapy in psychotic disorders. The pheno- thiazines as a class, and especially chlorpromazine (Thorazine) , are among the most widely used drugs in the practice of medicine today. From 1955 to 1965 at least 50 million patients received chlorpromazine and more than 10,000 publications have dealt with its actions (195). 3. (U) The use of psychopharmacologic agents is of keen interest throughout the world including the Soviet Union. Investigations on psychotherapeutic agents can no longer be overlooked in the Soviet literature. In the pharmaco-therapeutic reference work by Aronovich (196), four phenothiazines - aminazine (chlorpromazine), propazine, dinezin, and mepazine - and also reserpine (serpasil) are listed: but reports of clinical experience with phenothiazines (Rauwolfia derivatives play a smaller role altogether) refer almost exclusively to aminazine (approximately 127 references available- USSR). Most of the aminazine studies follow standard clinical research techniques however, some uses as mentioned in PART IT of this report appear to be for more sinister purposes. Based 63 UNCLASSIFIED Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6