Neuroleptic drugs in the printed media

Objective: Neuroleptic drugs have a dubious public reputation. Many people consider them obnoxious, even in schizophrenia. Method: 10 annual editions of six German language opinion leading newspapers are analysed. Results: On ly in one of 35 articles neuroleptics are judged positive, in 27 negative. They are seen close to violence and restriction, as punishment or even as t orture, as paralyzing or even as "torturetherapy". Informations in the arti cles are scarce. Most of the articles cover the fields of medicine or psych iatry or of forensics. Conclusion: Apart from the negative attitude the ext remely low number of articles on neuroleptics is the most outstanding resul t of our study.