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Reduced latent inhibition in people with schizophrenia: an effect of psychosis or of its treatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jonathan H. Williams ,
Nigel A. Wellman ,
David P. Geaney ,
Philip J. Cowen ,
Joram Feldon  and
J. N. P. Rawlins
Jonathan H. Williams
Affiliation:
Departments of Pharmacology & Experimental Psychology, Oxford
Nigel A. Wellman
Affiliation:
Departments of Pharmacology & Experimental Psychology, Oxford
David P. Geaney
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Oxford
Philip J. Cowen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Oxford
Joram Feldon
Affiliation:
Institute of Toxicology, Zurich
J. N. P. Rawlins*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford
*
Dr J. N. P. Rawlins. University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD
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Abstract

Background

People with schizophrenia show impaired attention. This could result from reduced latent inhibition (a measure of ability to filter out irrelevant stimuli). Previous studies have found reduced auditory latent inhibition in people with acute schizophrenia: we tested whether this results from psychosis or from drug treatment.

Method

We measured auditory latent inhibition in two studies. One compared antipsychotic-naive people with acute schizophrenia with patients within two weeks of starting antipsychotic treatment. The second compared healthy volunteers given either saline or 1.0 mg haloperidol, intravenously.

Results

Latent inhibition was absent in treated patients, but was clearly present in patients who were naive to antipsychotics. Latent inhibition was absent in volunteers given haloperidol, but was clearly present in those given saline.

Conclusions

The reduced auditory latent inhibition seen in acute schizophrenia is more plausibly due to antipsychotic treatment than to the disorder. Unless neuropsychological models of schizophrenia incorporate evidence from drug-free patients and drug-treated healthy controls, they may be invalid.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 172 , Issue 3 , March 1998 , pp. 243 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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Footnotes

∗

A preliminary report of some findings in the present manuscript was presented at the VIIIth Biennial Winter Workshop on Schizophrenia. Crans Montana, Switzerland. March 1996.

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