To investigate the effect of antipsychotic drugs directly, the serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activty was measured before and after three weeks' washout period in chronic schizophrenics.
Total number of subjects were eighty-two chronic schizophreni...
To investigate the effect of antipsychotic drugs directly, the serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activty was measured before and after three weeks' washout period in chronic schizophrenics.
Total number of subjects were eighty-two chronic schizophrenics, consisting of
forty-eight male and thirty-four female patients.
The diagnostic criteria was based on DSM-Ⅲ and duplicated assay was applied by
modified Udenfriend method.
The results were as follows;
1. After three weeks' washout period, the serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity was 13.50±2.12 in male, 11.72±2.12 in total patients.
Serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity of female patients were significantly lower than in male patients.(p<0.001)
2. The range of serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase in total patients was from 8.45 to 18.45㎛ol/min/1, which is relatively small compared with previous reports in the literature.
3. During the three weeks' washout period, the percent change was -8.81±17.35% in male (p<0.01), 1.94±20.92% in female(N.S), and -4.35±19.64%(p<0.05) in total patients compare to the serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity of three weeks' washout period.
The difference between male and female(p<0.02) is not clear.
4. During the three weeks' washout period, the absolute value of percent change was 16.48±10.36% in male, 17.71±13.93% in female, and 16.57±11.40% in total patients. (all, p<0.001)
5. The percent change of serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity did not seem to be related to the type of drugs, dose of drugs, age, hospital duration, duration of illness, and the presence of active symptom.
6. In summary, the current findings suggest that the interpretation of data indicating low serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity in medicated schizophrenics should be made with caution.