Dysphoric response to neuroleptics as a predictor of treatment outcome with schizophrenics. A comparative study of haloperidol versus mesoridazine.

ABSTRACT

In a double-blind comparison of haloperidol and mesoridazine in the treatment of 39 recently hospitalized schizophrenic patients, the two drug treatment groups showed comparable antipsychotic effects, though they did differ in side effects in expected manners. Analysis of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale to calculate an index of dysphoric response previously found predictive of poor ultimate outcome failed to predict outcome in this 4-week trial though patients with a dysphoric response to neuroleptics did prove to include a higher proportion of process schizophrenics, who might ultimately show poorer outcome, than did nondysphoric responders.