Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:1035-1039
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Calcium: pacesetting the periodic psychoses
JS Carman and RJ Wyatt
In this double-blind study dihydrotachysterol (DHT) was given orally to
eight psychotic patients; in each case marked increases in psychosis and
agitation accompanied increases in serum calcium and phosphorus within two
weeks after active drug was substituted for placebo. In the three patients
whose psychoses exhibited periodic spontaneous exacerbations, the agitated
episodes grew more severe. Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) increased in
all but one patient. By contrast, when three periodically psychotic
patients received synthetic salmon calcitonin (SCT), the severity and
frequency of agitated episodes decreased while CSF calcium increased in all
three. These data support the hypothesis that the observed abrupt increases
in serum calcium and phosphorus might cause the opposite CSF calcium
shifts, the behavioral agitation and the increases in serum CPK frequently
noted during acute psychosis.
