[Alcohol withdrawal by tiapride. Respective contribution of the descriptive psychopathology and the quantitative psychopathology (author's transl)].

Nineteen hospitalised male alcoholic addicts, as an average 38 years old, were given i.m. tiapride (Tiapridal at the mean dose of 400 mg three times daily during the first four days of weaning and 300 mg orally during the following ten days. The weaning was sudden ;not any psychotropic drug, with the exception of barbiturates, was associated to the therapy during the two weeks trial period. More particularly neither sedating neuroleptics nor vitamins have been administered. The essential aim of our study was to quantify the subjective evolution of the patients' well-being and mood during the weaning period under tiapride. We expressed the total self-evaluation with the 100 mm line, the self-evaluation of the mood with two lists of antinymous adjectives BfS and BfS' according to Zerssen and the self-analysis of anxiety according to Cattell. Our study confirmed the rapidity of action of tiapride as well as its efficiency and harmlessness at the dose of 300-400 mg per day. The drug seems to be better tolerated than the usual neuroleptics and to involve smaller potential risks of substitutive drug addiction than the anxiolytic drugs or paraldehyde.