The British Journal of Psychiatry 144: 177-180 (1984)
© 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Elevated cerebrospinal fluid noradrenaline in tardive dyskinesia
DV Jeste, DR Doongaji and M Linnoila
Cerebrospinal fluid was collected from 28 psychiatric (mostly
schizophrenic) inpatients from Bombay, India. These included eight patients
with tardive dyskinesia, five with spontaneous dyskinesia and 15 without
dyskinesia. The samples were flown to the National Institute of Mental
Health, Washington, D.C., where they were analyzed "blind" for
concentrations of noradrenaline and several monoamine metabolites. Patients
with tardive dyskinesia had significantly higher noradrenaline
concentrations in the CSF as compared with the other two groups.
Spontaneous dyskinesia group had significantly lower concentrations of
homovanillic acid in the CSF. Our results support the hypothesis of
noradrenergic hyperactivity, rather than postsynaptic dopamine receptor
supersensitivity, in tardive dyskinesia.