RESUMO
Prompted by previous reports of substantial clinical improvement in most schizophrenic patients given hemodialysis for their psychiatric condition, we studied the efficacy of hemodialysis in 15 schizophrenic outpatients, under double-blind, controlled conditions. The patients were randomly assigned to either a real-sham or sham-real sequence of dialysis treatment. Results of repeated measurement and other analyses of data on symptoms and behavior that were collected before study treatment, at crossover, and at the end of treatment revealed no difference between the effects of real and sham dialysis. These results provide important experimental evidence of the lack of therapeutic efficacy of hemodialysis in schizophrenia.
Assuntos
Diálise Renal , Esquizofrenia/terapia , Adolescente , Adulto , Ensaios Clínicos como Assunto , Método Duplo-Cego , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Escalas de Graduação Psiquiátrica , Distribuição Aleatória , Esquizofrenia/diagnósticoRESUMO
A comparison of a chemical analytic technique (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) with that of the dopamine receptor blocking assay in a study involving seven schizophrenic patients being administered a fixed dosage of haloperidol (20 mg) demonstrated a high degree of correspondence in the quantification of the plasma levels of the neuroleptic.
