Sulfozinum (sulfozin) 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 (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...

in peach oil or

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...

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

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, 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 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 commonly referred to as punitive psychiatry, is the misuse of psychiatry, including diagnosis, detention, and treatment, for the purposes of obstructing the human rights of individuals and/or groups in a society ...

. Sulfozine symbolised Soviet punitive psychiatry. In 1989, during Perestroika, 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