Am J Psychiatry 1978; 135:1329-1332
Copyright © 1978 by American Psychiatric Association
Paradoxical reaction to L-dopa in schizophrenic patients
M Alpert, AJ Friedhoff, LR Marcos and F Diamond
The authors administered 6 g of L-dopa to 8 schizophrenic patients and 750
mg of chlorpromazine to 7 schizophrenic patients. Chlorpromazine showed
only a modest advantage over L-dopa and only on some Brief Psychiatric
Rating Scale factor scores, and at maximum dosage the thought disturbance
factor score in the L-dopa-treated group was not worse than at baseline.
The results suggest that L-dopa is associated more with toxic than with
schizophreniform symptoms and that there is adaptation to its effects. The
authors discuss implications of these findings for the dopamine hypothesis
of schizophrenia.
