Neuroendocrine Evidence That Clozapine's Serotonergic Antagonism Is Relevant to Its Efficacy in Treating Hallucinations and Other Positive Schizophrenic Symptoms

OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the effect of prolonged clozapine treatment on central serotonergic (5-HT) function in schizophrenia. METHOD: Prolactin responses to the 5-HT releasing agent d-fenfluramine were measured in two groups of 10 schizophrenic subjects. The first group was tested twice, bef...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of psychiatry 1998-06, Vol.155 (6), p.838-840
Main Authors: Jones, Hugh, Curtis, Vivienne A., Wright, Padraig, Lucey, James V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Antipsychotic Agents - pharmacology
Antipsychotic Agents - therapeutic use
Biological and medical sciences
Clozapine - pharmacology
Clozapine - therapeutic use
Drug therapy
Female
Fenfluramine - pharmacology
Hallucinations - drug therapy
Hallucinations - psychology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Neuropharmacology
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Prolactin - blood
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychiatry
Psycholeptics: tranquillizer, neuroleptic
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopharmacology
Receptors, Serotonin - drug effects
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - blood
Schizophrenia - drug therapy
Schizophrenic Psychology
Serotonin Antagonists - pharmacology
Serotonin Antagonists - therapeutic use
Treatment Outcome
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:OBJECTIVE: The authors examined the effect of prolonged clozapine treatment on central serotonergic (5-HT) function in schizophrenia. METHOD: Prolactin responses to the 5-HT releasing agent d-fenfluramine were measured in two groups of 10 schizophrenic subjects. The first group was tested twice, before and after a mean of 10 weeks of clozapine treatment. The second group was tested after a mean of 20 months of clozapine treatment. RESULTS: The prolactin response was significantly blunted in these 20 patients treated with clozapine. There was a significant positive correlation between d-fenfluramine-evoked prolactin release and the overall positive symptom score and the hallucination and delusion subscores of the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Blunted 5-HT-mediated prolactin responses in schizophrenic patients receiving clozapine monotherapy for up to 20 months were correlated with reductions in positive symptoms. This suggests that 5-HT antagonism is relevant to clozapine's efficacy in alleviating hallucinations and other positive schizophrenic symptoms.
ISSN:0002-953X
1535-7228
DOI:10.1176/ajp.155.6.838