OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia
who have been treated with neuroleptics have a high rate of Alzheimer's
disease-like neuropathology. METHOD: Neuropathological studies indicating
the presence or absence of Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology in the
postmortem brains of patients with schizophrenia, normal comparison
subjects, and comparison subjects who had affective disorder were evaluated
with Mantel-Haenszel chi-square and odds ratio analyses. RESULTS: Ten
studies with relevant data were reviewed; none of eight with comparisons
indicated that Alzheimer's disease-like neuropathology was more likely to
be found in the brains of patients with schizophrenia than in the brains of
comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Suggestions that cerebral plaques and
neurofibrillary tangles are more common in schizophrenia in association
with neuroleptic treatment were not supported.
Abstract Teaser