[Drug-response differences of high and standard dosage of fluphenazine-decanoate in relation to schizophrenic symptoms (author's transl)].

Abstract

The treatment of schizophrenic patients with high-dosed neuroleptics is discussed. The drug-response difference between a low dose and a high dose of Fluphenazine-Decanoate was investigated in 40 chronic schizophrenic patients. All patients were resistant to standard doses of neuroleptics and were therefore treated with higher doses. All patients entering the study were treated for at least three months with high doses of Fluphenazine-Decanoate, i.e. 100 mg or more within three weeks. From this pool of 40 patients two groups were created at random for the doubleblind study: In one group the high dose was continued (average dose 225 mg/in 14 days), in the other group Fluphenazine-Decanoate was reduced to a standard-dose of 25 mg in 14 days. During the 24 weeks of investigation the somatic and psychopathological state of the patient was evaluated by means of the AMP-System. Furthermore the self-rating scale EWL-K was used. After 24 weeks the patients of the high-dosed group were more often rated as unchanged, while the patients in the standard-dosed group were evaluated significantly more often as better or worse. Average condition-differences between the both groups could not be found in a covariance-analysis. A factorial covariance-analysis showed that differences in the initial hostility-syndrome and catatonic-syndrome scores are predictors for a syndrom-relevant differential dosage per group. Patients with low hostility- and low catatonic-syndrome-scores improved after reduction of the doses in the apathic, the halluzinatoric-desintegrative and the neurological syndrome, whereas patients with high initial hostility- and catatonic-syndrome-scores became psychopathologically worse after dosage reduction. Finally the possibilities of generalizing from the results obtained to the relevance of high and standard neuropletic therapy are discussed.