In the past few years many papers have appeared both in Europe and the United States of America demonstrating the value of Chlorpromazine and Reserpine in the treatment of mental illness. In the United States of America Kinross-Wright (1954) has reported on Chlorpromazine in the treatment of schizophrenia and claimed very satisfactory results; in this country Lomas (1955) and his collaborators have in several papers confirmed these results. With regard to Reserpine in the United States of America Kline (1954) has used the drug extensively with good results; in Europe, hopeful reports by Foote (1955) and McGrath et al. (1956) confirmed the value of this drug in psychiatric practice.

Since the discovery of the therapeutic value of induced epileptic convulsions in mental illness, there have been efforts to make this form of treatment available to those patients whose psychiatric state would benefit from it but whose physical condition contraindicates its use. Modifications have been sought, particularly since the introduction of electrical methods of inducing the fit. The modification of electroplexy takes three main forms—postural, electrical and chemical (Montagu, 1953) and it is with this third type, the use of anaesthetic and relaxant drugs, that this paper is concerned.

Electro-convulsive therapy was first introduced by Cerletti and Bini in 1938, and has now become the principal physical method of therapy in psychiatry.