Clinical correlates of platelet prostaglandin receptor subsensitivity in schizophrenia.

A diminished cAMP response to prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) in platelets from schizophrenic patients has been demonstrated previously. The authors report that among 35 actively psychotic male schizophrenic patients, the platelet cAMP response to PGE1 was negatively correlated with global symptom severity and with several indexes of positive symptom severity but not with negative symptom severity. If this subsensitivity of platelet PGE receptors extends to brain PGE receptors, schizophrenic patients may have an impairment in the ability of endogenous PGEs to inhibit dopaminergic transmission. Such impairment could have a permissive effect on the production of psychotic symptoms during exacerbations in schizophrenic patients.