Differential effects of haloperidol on negative symptoms in drug-naive schizophrenic patients: effects on plasma homovanillic acid

After 5 weeks of haloperidol, positive symptoms in drug-naive schizophrenicpatients substantially subsided. Negative symptoms, although with a different temporal pattern, decreased after the fifth week of haloperidol treatment; specifically, a decrease was seen in anhedonia and affective flattening,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Schizophrenia research 1993-03, Vol.9 (1), p.29-34
Main Authors: Labarca, Rodrigo, Silva, Hernan, Jerez, Sonia, Ruiz, Aida, Forray, Maria I., Gysling, Katia, Andres, Maria E., Bustos, Gonzalo, Castillo, Yamil, Hono, Jose
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Affect - drug effects
Arousal - drug effects
Attention - drug effects
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - drug effects
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Double-Blind Method
Female
Haloperidol
Haloperidol - therapeutic use
Homovanillic acid
Homovanillic Acid - blood
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Motivation
Negative symptom
Neuropharmacology
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Positive symptom
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psycholeptics: tranquillizer, neuroleptic
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
Receptors, Dopamine - drug effects
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - blood
Schizophrenic Psychology
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Summary:After 5 weeks of haloperidol, positive symptoms in drug-naive schizophrenicpatients substantially subsided. Negative symptoms, although with a different temporal pattern, decreased after the fifth week of haloperidol treatment; specifically, a decrease was seen in anhedonia and affective flattening, whereas avolition-apathy and attentional impairment presented no changes. Alogia showed a decrease during the third week and a trend to return to placebo scores during weeks 4 and 5. Changes in affective flattening, alogia and attentional impairment correlated with changes in positive symptoms. During placebo, plasma homovanillic acid (HVA) correlated with negative symptoms and with changes presented by negative symptoms between the first and the fifth treatment week. These data show that negative symptoms respond differentially to neuroleptics and suggest that avolition-apathy may represent a different behavioral component of the schizophrenia process.
ISSN:0920-9964
1573-2509
DOI:10.1016/0920-9964(93)90006-5