Abstract
Naloxone, a pure narcotic antagonist, has been claimed to possess antipsychotic activity in man. Naloxone was evaluated in several laboratory tests in rodents that have been routinely used to predict such activity in humans. When compared to both classical (haloperidol) and non-classical (clozapine) antipsychotic reference agents, naloxone's pharmacological profile did not resemble those of the currently available drugs. Thus, on the basis of the present results, it is difficult to predict that naloxone would exhibit antipsychotic activity in a significant segment of schizophrenic patients. If imbalances in endorphins are related to the development of schizophrenia, drastic alterations in current theories on psychosis and in laboratory tests designed to detect antipsychotic activity are required.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 475-488 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Communications in Psychopharmacology |
| Volume | 1 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| State | Published - Dec 1 1977 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Medicine