A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH TO ANALYSIS OF CEREBROSPINAL-FLUID BIOGENIC-AMINES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA .1. COMPARISONS WITH HEALTHY CONTROL SUBJECTS AND NEUROLEPTIC-TREATED UNMEDICATED PAIRS ANALYSES/

Recent hypotheses and findings indicate that measurements of interacti ons between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biogenic amine systems, rather t han measurement of CSF biogenic amine metabolites, better correlate wi th clinically important findings in schizophrenia. To test these hypot heses, we used a recent technological advance in high performance liqu id chromatography with electrochemical detection and combined it with multivariate statistical analyses to study biogenic amine concentratio ns in CSF in schizophrenia. This approach enabled the study of the int eractions of several metabolites of each of the three major neurotrans mitter pathways (dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotonergic) to tes t existing hypotheses regarding the neurobiochemical basis of schizoph renia. Twenty biogenic amines, their metabolites, and other compounds from 24 medication-free schizophrenic patients and 12 normal control s ubjects were simultaneously measured using a recently developed techni que of gradient high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a 16-channel electrochemical array detector. After covariation for stora ge time, results of a stepwise discriminant function analysis comparin g the control and patient groups identified tryptophan, tryptophol, an d epinephrine as discriminating variables. Hotelling's paired T-2 test from a subgroup of schizophrenic patients studied while they were and were not receiving neuroleptic treatment did not yield any significan t differences between subgroups. A discussion of the findings and a co mparison with previous studies of CSF biogenic amines in schizophrenia are presented.