TYPE-I AND TYPE-II SCHIZOPHRENIA - RELATIONS BETWEEN TONIC ELECTRODERMAL ACTIVITY AND CLINICAL RATINGS BEFORE AND AFTER HALOPERIDOL TREATMENT

To test the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients with positive vs. n egative symptoms show different tonic electrodermal patterns, 26 patie nts with Type I schizophrenia and 19 patients with Type II schizophren ia were evaluated before and after 2 weeks of haloperidol treatment (s tandard daily dose = 4.5 mg). Clinical assessments were made with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Scale for the Assessment of Positi ve Symptoms, and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. Sk in conductance level (SCL) and spontaneous fluctuations (SF) frequency were recorded for each patient. Before treatment, Type I patients sho wed higher SCL and SF compared with Type II patients; after treatment, a significative decrease of clinical and psychophysiological variable s was found only in Type I patients.