[Polyamines and mental diseases].

The authors make an attempt to understand and evaluate the role of polyamines in the development of endogenous mental diseases. The article is dedicated to distribution and exchange of polyamines in the central nervous system, their metabolic and regulatory associations with gamma-aminobutyric acid and dopaminergic systems, as well as to possible neuromediatory and neuromodulatory functions of polyamines. The paper is also concerned with effects of psychotropic agents on polyamine metabolism and contains a hypothesis on the role of polyamines in etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia.

[Serum spermidine levels of schizophrenic patients].

Blood levels of spermidine were determined in 72 schizophrenic patients. They proved to be significantly higher as compared to those observed in clinically healthy people. Spermidine levels tended to decrease in the course of treatment.