The results of an investigation conducted on the Formulario Especial dos Medicamentos para o Hospital de alienados em Rilhafoles (1901), a mental disease drug formulary for the oldest Portuguese psychiatric hospital, are presented. The study considered the Portuguese situation within the European setting.

This study quantifies the number of drugs and pharmaceutical forms and establishes a comparison with the most commonly used international psychiatric medication at the time. The present study aims at contributing to the history of psychiatric drug therapy before the advent of psychoactive drugs. The most commonly used pharmaceutical forms and therapeutic groups in psychiatry are evaluated. Furthermore, we also wish to contribute to the evaluation of how Portugal received and implemented innovations in drug therapy.

Quantitative and qualitative document analysis of the above mentioned formulary, using the comparative method.

The edition of this formulary arose from the need to standardize specific medication for mental patients. In the Formulario, 61 medicinal products are proposed. There were 8 different pharmaceutical forms. The potions were the most commonly referred (32). Hypnotics represented approximately half of the medicinal products (28), followed by hypokinetics (9), and analgesics and antipyretics (8).

The formulary was in line with foreign scientific innovations. Pharmacotherapeutic variety of drugs was short and resorting to non-drug therapies was also usual. The edition of this formulary was mainly due to the work conducted by the psychiatrist Miguel Bombarda (1851–1910), a prominent public figure in medicine and in the political and cultural arena.