title: [Turning an addictive drug into a remedy--the assessment of sedatives at the Charité Nervenklinik from 1962-75].
abstract: On which evidence did psychiatrists at the East-Berlin Charité Hospital base the diagnosis of substance abuse? This article aims to reconstruct criteria of abuse, dependency and misuse of pharmaceuticals, drawing on patient files from the Psychiatric Clinic from 1962-1975. To assess preclinical sedative use, a quantitative and qualitative analysis is carried out. It shows how sedative consumption was less and less seen as misuse. The article argues that Karl Leonhard's retirement from his position as the director of the clinic in 1970 gave way to a substantial restructuring of clinical practice which changed the understanding of substance abuse. Where Leonhard focused on prognosis based on diagnostic evaluation, next-generation psychiatrists concentrated on psychotropic substances and made them an essential and legitimate element of psychiatric therapy.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Charité Berlin, Berlin, Germany. matthias.hoheisel@charite.de
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hoheisel
mesh_terms: D001604:Berlin; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000266:history*; D005859:Germany, East; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000266:history*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs