Abstract
The discovery that human brain contains peptides with opioid activity has created a worldwide research effort. Since opiate alkaloids have a profound influence on pain, mood, and behavior in man, the hypothesis has arisen that certain mental disorders could be connected with a dysfunction of the endorphin systems. The first direct evidence for this hypothesis was obtained from a small group of schizophrenic patients, who were found to have increased concentrations of two endorphin fractions in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in a drug-free state (Terenius et al., 1976). This finding was supported by later studies (Lindström et al., 1978; Rimon et al., 1980); furthermore, patients with manic-depressive disorders and puerperal psychosis have been found to have increased levels of endorphins in CSF (Terenius et al., 1977; Lindström et al., 1978) and plasma (Pickar et al., 1980). Indirect support for the hypothesis comes from studies with the opiate antagonist naloxone. A decrement especially of auditory hallucinations has been reported in selected patients (Gunne et al., 1977; Emrich et al., 1977; Watson et al., 1978), but others have failed to replicate these results (Table 1). A relationship between endorphins and mental disturbances has also been suggested by several investigators (Bloom et al., 1976; Jacquet and Marks, 1976; Herz, 1976; Byck, 1976; for a review see Verebey et al., 1978; Watson et al., 1979; Davis et al., 1979).
Keywords
- Schizophrenic Patient
- Auditory Hallucination
- Neuroleptic Treatment
- Opioid Activity
- Schizophrenic Symptom
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Lindström, L.H. et al. (1982). Cerebrospinal Fluid Content of Endorphins in Schizophrenia. In: Shah, N.S., Donald, A.G. (eds) Endorphins and Opiate Antagonists in Psychiatric Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1119-5_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-1119-5_13
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