HYSTERICAL NEUROSIS OF THE CONVERSION TYPE - THERAPEUTIC ACTIVITY OF NEUROLEPTICS WITH DIFFERENT HYPERPROLACTINEMIC POTENCY

To show a possible correlation between drug-induced hyperprolactinemia and improvement of hysterical neurosis of the conversion type, we fol lowed 18 patients monitoring clinical somatic and psychic symptoms as well as serum prolactin levels, Six: patients were treated with halope ridol and 12 with sulpiride; after 2 months sulpiride was administered at half the daily dose to 6 patients previously treated with the same drug, Clinical evaluation showed that sulpiride treatment led to a gr eater improvement compared to the haloperidol group, The different eff ectiveness of treatment could be explained by the different hyperprola ctinemic potency. The therapeutic efficacy of neuroleptics suggests al so that hyperactivity of dopaminergic transmission is involved in the pathophysiology of hysterical neurotic symptoms.