CLINICAL COURSE OF DOPAMINE-INDUCED PSYCH OSES UNDER CONTINUOUS DOPAMINERGIC THERAPY AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DOPAMINE HYPOTHESIS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

We present the case reports of 11 Parkinsonian patients who developed acute psychosis under continuous dopaminergic stimulation. Psychopatho logically, two of the patients mainly suffered from organic hallucinos is, while nine patients showed the clinical symptoms of delirium. The clinical course and psychopathological findings in these patients did not differ from other acute organic psychoses. However, the symptoms o f these dopaminergically induced psychoses varied significantly from t he psychopathological findings of paranoid schizophrenic patients who were regularly treated and evaluated in our clinic. These differences in symptoms and clinical course of dopamine-induced and schizophrenic psychosis do not support the hypothesis that the pathogenesis of schiz ophrenic symptoms can be explained only by a hyperfunction of dopamine rgic transmission. Instead, the involvement of other neurotransmitter system must be considered in order to explain the pathogenesis of schi zophrenic symptoms on a neurobiological level.