Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:174-178
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
Serum level monitoring of thiothixene in schizophrenia: acute single- dose levels at fixed doses
JA Yesavage, J Becker, PD Werner, MJ Mills, CA Holman and R Cohn
After establishing a strong correlation between steady-state thiothixene
levels and levels drawn 2.5 hours after a 20-mg test dose, the authors
examined the correlation between clinical improvement and serum levels
drawn 2.5 hours after a single 20-mg test dose of thiothixene. For 30 male
schizophrenic inpatients, improvement on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale
was significantly correlated with the single test-dose levels. Serum levels
were also positively correlated with age, which may explain the tendency of
elderly patients to require lower neuroleptic doses and to exhibit a higher
incidence of side effects. The results suggest that acute single-dose
levels may be useful in predicting clinical response to thiothixene.
