IRVINE : Research Released on Schizophrenia

A brain scan can help predict which patients will respond to the anti-schizophrenia drug haloperidol, UC Irvine researchers reported this week.

Saying there are probably several types of schizophrenia, research psychiatrist Monte S. Buchsbaum noted that only a third of those with the illness respond to the drug Haldol (haloperidol).

Buchsbaum said he was not yet ready to suggest that doctors get brain scans of their schizophrenic patients before starting them on drug therapy. But by next year, when a study of 40 schizophrenics is completed, Buchsbaum said he may be able to make that recommendation.

In a symposium Monday at UCI’s Brain Imaging Center, Buchsbaum, Dr. William E. Bunney and psychologist Richard J. Haier said they could predict which schizophrenics were likely to respond to Haldol and were able to show that Haldol would prove effective on 10 of 23 schizophrenics they were studying.

The drug raises the metabolism in the center of the brain, in an area called the basal ganglia, and causes release of the chemical dopamine, Buchsbaum said.