Posted by ed_uk on July 31, 2005, at 16:56:53
In reply to Schizophrenia: a new treatment option........, posted by ed_uk on July 30, 2005, at 16:28:57
Dipyridamole (Persantine) is a widely used anti-platelet drug. It is used to prevent thromboembolic complications following cardiac valve replacement. Dipyridamole is an adenosine reuptake inhibitor. Like allopurinol, it should theoretically act as an indirect adenosine antagonist.
J Clin Pharm Ther. 2000 Apr;25(2):131-7.
Dipyridamole in the treatment of schizophrenia: adenosine-dopamine receptor interactions.Akhondzadeh S, Shasavand E, Jamilian H, Shabestari O, Kamalipour A.
Roozbeh Psychiatric Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, South Kargar Avenue, Tehran 13334, Iran. s.akhond@neda.net
OBJECTIVE: There is growing interest in investigating the adenosine-dopamine interaction in the ventral striatum. Adenosine plays a role opposite to dopamine in the striatum and adenosine antagonists, like caffeine, produce similar effects to increased dopaminergic neurotransmission in the striatum. In particular, a strong antagonistic interaction between adenosine A2A and dopamine D2 receptors takes place in the striopallidal GABAergic neurones. Therefore, adenosine agonists or uptake inhibitors provide a potential new treatment for schizophrenia. We undertook a pilot trial to investigate whether the combination of haloperidol with dipyridamole, an uptake inhibitor of adenosine, was more effective than haloperidol alone. METHODS: Thirty patients who met the DSM IV criteria for schizophrenia completed the study. Patients were allocated in a random fashion, 16 to haloperidol 20 mg/day plus dipyridamole 75 mg/day and 14 to haloperidol 20 mg/day plus placebo. RESULTS: Although both protocols significantly decreased the score of the positive, negative and general psychopathological symptoms over the trial period, the combination of haloperidol and dipyridamole was significantly better than haloperidol alone in decreasing positive and general psychopathology symptoms as well as PANSS total scores. CONCLUSION: Dipyridamole may be of therapeutic benefit in treating schizophrenia in combination with neuroleptics. However, a larger study to confirm our results is warranted.
Unfortunately, dipyridamole was not effective in anxiety..........
Biol Psychiatry. 1993 Apr 15-May 1;33(8-9):647-50. Related Articles, Links
Lack of efficacy of the adenosine reuptake inhibitor dipyridamole in the treatment of anxiety disorders.Stein MB, Black B, Brown TM, Uhde TW.
Section on Anxiety and Affective Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
We administered dipyridamole, an adenosine reuptake inhibitor, to 12 outpatients with DSM-III-R anxiety disorders (2 patients with generalized anxiety disorder, 10 patients with panic disorder). Dipyridamole was administered at a flexible dose in a single-blinded fashion following a placebo washout phase and elimination of placebo responders. The mean duration of active treatment with dipyridamole was 46 days (range 21-88 days); the mean peak dose of dipyridamole was 202 +/- 55 mg/day (range 100-300 mg/day). Symptom ratings were completed at regular intervals by the patient and by a research nurse unaware of the treatment condition. Clinically significant improvement in anxiety symptoms was not demonstrated. The implications of these findings for an adenosinergic dysfunction model of panic disorder are discussed.
~Ed
poster:ed_uk
thread:535711
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