Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:934-938
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
L-dopa challenge and relapse in schizophrenia
M Davidson, RS Keefe, RC Mohs, LJ Siever, MF Losonczy, TB Horvath and KL Davis
Neuroleptic administration has been shown to be superior to placebo in
prolonging schizophrenic remission. However, individual patients are able
to maintain long periods of remission in the absence of neuroleptic
treatment, while others relapse soon after neuroleptic withdrawal. This
study attempted to predict time to relapse in 28 schizophrenic patients
withdrawn from neuroleptics and challenged with L-dopa for 7 days, then
followed until relapse. Time to relapse correlated significantly with
L-dopa-induced increase in BPRS score (p = .006). Five of six patients who
responded to L-dopa relapsed within 4 weeks after L-dopa administration,
while only four of 22 who did not respond relapsed in a comparable period.
