ABSTRACT
Psychiatric literature is abundant with studies reporting the effectiveness of phenothiazine treatment in altering the behavior of mentally ill patients. When such studies are conducted within hospital or laboratory settings they are performed under relatively controlled environmental conditions which are usually conducive to behavioral change among patients. However, when studying the effects of treatment among a population of clinic patients, those who are living at home while receiving medication, the environment in which the anticipated behavioral change is expected to occur may differ according to variability in family culture. The basic assumption underlying this paper is that the families of psychiatric patients can be differentiated according to modal patterns of social interaction between family members and that different interactional patterns will modify the effects of phenothiazine treatment. 174 The specific behavior studied was the alteration of social aggression among a sample of chronic schizophrenic outpatients receiving either chlorpromazine, promazine, or placebo treatment.
