The introduction of chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands (1951–1968); tango between old and new treatment features

The introduction of chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands demonstrates an intriguing tango between old and new treatments. Chlorpromazine, marketed by the French company Rhône Poulenc entered psychiatry as an adjunct to existing therapies. Instead of promoting chlorpromazine as a revolutionary therapy, we see early efforts to market Largactil as a supplement to the armoury of psychiatric treatments. These marketing efforts matched the idiosyncrasies of national and local styles and cultures. Despite continuities with earlier therapeutic developments, we support the notion of a therapeutic revolution. In the early sixties supply and demand provoked a turn towards more standardized therapeutic regimes.

► The introduction of chlorpromazine in the low countries demonstrates an intriguing tango between old and new therapies.
► The marketing efforts matched the idiosyncrasies of national and local styles and cultures for healing the mind.
► Chlorpromazine helped to reconfigure the meanings and the uses of drug therapy in local psychiatric biotopes.
► Thus chronologies were not national but local.
► Historical continuities do not conflict with the notion of a therapeutic revolution in psychiatry.