Evaluation of the need for prophylactic antiparkinsonian medication in psychotic patients treated with neuroleptics.

A double-blind study of 42 psychotic patients treated with neuroleptics evaluated the need for prophylactic use of antiparkinsonian medication. The patients assigned to placebo (N = 27) presented significantly more severe extrapyramidal symptomatology, particularly dystonias, than those given trihexyphenidyl (N = 15), indicating a need for the prophylactic use of antiparkinsonian medication during treatment with neuroleptics.

Gradual withdrawal of antiparkinson medication in chronic schizophrenics: any better than the abrupt?

Twenty-four months after the completion of a double blind study of antiparkinson (AP) medication abrupt withdrawal in which 100 chronic schizophrenics took part, 42 patients out of that study's 75 patient placebo group were found in the ward. In a new double blind 8-week study of 3-week gradual withdrawal of AP medication, 70-6 per cent of the 34 patient placebo group (vs. none of the active) presented severe extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) necessitating early termination, 23.

The need for continuous use of antiparkinsonian medication with chronic schizophrenic patients receiving long-term neuroleptic therapy.

In this double-blind six-week study, 98 chronic schizophrenic patients receiving long-term neuroleptic treatment and trihexyphenidyl were switched to either placebo or study trihexyphenidyl. Fifty-one (68%) of the 75 patients given placebo versus 1 of the 23 patients who continued on active trihexyphenidyl developed severe worsening of extrapyramidal signs, necessitating early termination from the study. Twenty-one (28%) of the placebo patients versus 2 (8.

Discontinuing antiparkinson medication in chronic schizophrenics. At what cost to the patient?

In a double-blind study of 100 chronic schizophrenic patients, withdrawal of antiparkinson (AP) medication showed that 44% of the 75 patients who constituted the placebo group (versus none of the patients on active AP medication), complained strongly of debilitating extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) and another 22.6% (versus 8.7% of the patients on active AP medication), displayed disturbing psychotic symptomatology related to EPS.