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Correlation of adenosinergic activity with superior efficacy of clozapine for treatment of chronic schizophrenia: a double blind randomised trial
Author(s) -
Ghaleiha Ali,
Honarbakhsh Navid,
Boroumand MohammadAli,
Jafarinia Morteza,
Tabrizi Mina,
Rezaei Farzin,
Raznahan Maedeh,
Akhondzadeh Shahin
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/hup.1176
Subject(s) - adenosinergic , clozapine , haloperidol , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , risperidone , antipsychotic , medicine , psychology , psychiatry , adenosine receptor , receptor , dopamine , agonist
Objective It has been proposed that a deficit of adenosinergic activity could contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The authors undertook this study to further evaluate the level of adenosine deaminase (ADA) in patients with chronic schizophrenia treated with monotherapy of haloperidol, risperidone or clozapine and correlation between the ADA level with response to treatment. Methods The trial was a prospective, 8‐week, double blind study of parallel groups of patients with chronic schizophrenia. Eligible participants in the study were 51 patients with chronic schizophrenia with ages ranging from 20 to 45 years. All participants were inpatients, in the active phase of illness, and met DSM‐IV‐TR criteria for schizophrenia. Patients were randomly allocated (17 patients in each group) to risperidone (6 mg/day) or haloperidol 15 mg/day or clozapine (300 mg/day). Serum ADA activity was measured at baseline and week 8. Results The plasma levels of ADA in patients with chronic schizophrenia who received clozapine were significantly higher than patients who received haloperidol. In addition, response to treatment was positively correlated with plasma levels of ADA only in the clozapine group ( r = 0.46 and p = 0.04). Conclusion The results indicate an increased activity of the enzyme ADA in the serum of schizophrenic patients being treated with clozapine and this increase may be correlated with clozapine's superior antipsychotic efficacy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.