BASAL AND HALOPERIDOL-STIMULATED PROLACTIN AND SYMPTOMS OF NONAFFECTIVE AND AFFECTIVE PSYCHOSES IN NEUROLEPTIC-FREE MEN

The prolactin (PRL) response to 0.5 mg of intravenous haloperidol (HPL ) IV may be a measure of tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic activity. Our earlier reports, using multidiagnostic strategies in schizophrenia, s uggested that psychoses characterized by the absence of affective synd romes (Keks et al 1990) and the presence of thought disorder and passi vity delusions (Keks et al 1992) are linked to blunted PRL responses. In this paper we evaluated the relationships between basal and HPL-sti mulated PRL concentrations, and a number of potentially relevant sympt om measures. Basal PRL was lower in patients without a depressive synd rome and suicidal ideation. Stimulated PRL was lower in patients witho ut neurovegetative symptoms (versus patients with neurovegetative symp toms and controls), with depression (versus patients with no depressio n and controls) and those with disorder of associations (versus patien ts without association disturbance and controls). These findings can b e interpreted as indicating a link between endocrine measures of dopam inergic function and a subtype of schizophrenic psychosis characterize d by the presence of thinking disturbance in the absence of depression .