For some time we have been attempting to determine whether there were biochemical alterations in schizophrenic patients which would correlate with the behavioral deviations and the physiological characteristics of this disease which we have previously reported.* There are many reports in the literature of minor and inconsistent biochemical differences between normals and schizophrenics.3 We have reported from this laboratory alterations in the speed of adrenaline oxidation in schizophrenics \ s=d\ and lowered levels of glutathione6 in association with the psychotic behavior. In our studies, however, findings on both of these tests were nonspecific in that they occurred in association with other diseases not characterized by psychotic behavior. An important consideration is the fact that other disease processes were not present in the schizophrenics who showed these changes. It seemed plausible to us, however, that the changes in these two indicators could be caused by quantitative or qualitative differences in a specific enzyme system. Several observations in regard to the adrenaline oxi¬ dation test led us to suspect the possibility that ceruloplasmin, a known oxidase, might
Large individual differences have been found in the steady-state plasma levels of desmethylimipramine ( DMI) and nortriptyline (NT) in patients treated for 2 to 3 weeks with doses of 25 mg., three times a day. 8 • 10 · 21 Moody and associates 16 found large differences for imipramine ( IP) and DMI when IP was administered. Hammer and Sji:iqvist 10 observed that patients who developed high or low plasma levels (in steady state) of DMI or NT also developed
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