Personality and Reactivity to Tranquilizers

The paper reports on the reactivity of non-patient male volunteers to four types of tranquilizers. The correlations between their performances and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scale scores and the General Intelligence Test (GT) score of the Army Classification Battery were studied. Subjects who had two or more MMPI standard scale scores above 70 were labeled 'abnormal.' and those who did not were labeled 'normal.' Significant correlations were found, depending on the population sampled and the type and dose of the drugs studied. Normal subjects had similar correlations between performance and personality measures after receiving secobarbital sodium (200 mg po) and chlorpromazine hydrochloride (50 mg im). Normal subjects who received diazepam (10mg iv) and a butyrophenone (iv) had similar correlations between performance and personality measures, but these correlations were distinct from those found with secobarbital sodium and chlorpromazine hydrochloride. Abnormal subjects tended to be more resistant to performance decrement than normal subjects to the doses of secobarbital sodium and chlorpromazine hydrochloride, but they were significantly more sensitive than normals to decrement in performance following diazepam (10 mg iv) and amobarbital sodium (250 mg iv). (Author)