Sulfozinum (sulfazin) is a pharmaceutical drug that causes a pyrogenic reaction (body temperature elevation) and severe pain. Sulfozinum is a 0.37 – 2% sterilized solution of purified elemental

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

in peach oil or

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

for intramuscular injections. The preparation is unstable, so it was prepared only in local hospital pharmacies. In the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, it was used in the pyrogenic treatment of syphilitic encephalitis (mostly in the pre-antibiotics era), various psychiatric conditions, and alcoholism. Sulfozin was not used in American psychiatry. The American delegation during its visit to the USSR in 1989 confirmed charges of the use of sulfozine injections. Psychiatrists in the USSR employed sulfozine treatment allegedly to increase treatment response to neuroleptic administration but were unable to present any research evidence of its efficiency for this purpose. The muscle necrosis, fever, immobility, and severe pain caused by sulfozine, as well as the pattern of its use in 10 persons, suggest that the medication was applied for

punitive Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon an individual or group, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a deterrent to a particular action or beha ...

rather than therapeutic purposes. Real benefits of its use in psychiatry are disputable, but it was widely used due to its extremely painful action, lasting from several hours to 2–3 days, as a punishment for psychiatric patients and in

political abuse of psychiatry Political abuse of psychiatry, also known as punitive psychiatry, refers to the misuse of psychiatric diagnosis, detention, and treatment to suppress individual or group human rights in society. This abuse involves the deliberate psychiatric dia ...

. Sulfozine symbolised Soviet punitive psychiatry. In 1989, during

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

, its use was restricted only to cases when its prescription was confirmed both by consilium and by informed consent of the patient or his representatives.Приказ Минздрава СССР от 15.08.1989 № 470
— Russian DoH order (in Russian) Its present use is not known.

In post-Soviet Russia

Some psychiatrists in post-Soviet Russia call the criticism of sulfozin attacks on psychiatry and still believe that sulfozin was sometimes the only effective treatment when all other ones were ineffective in calming down violent patients.{{cite web, title=Extreme psychiatry, url=http://www.abc-gid.ru/articles/show/2758/, publisher=ABC magazine, author=Malyavin, Maxim, language=Russian, date=13 July 2012 The psychiatrists say that sulfozin really brought a psychosis to remission.

References

Psychopharmacology Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union Drugs in the Soviet Union Russian drugs History of psychiatry Sulfur

In post-Soviet Russia

See also

References