[Classification of chronic psychoses types I and II and platelet serotonin levels. Apropos of 38 cases].

The authors have examined, within a population of 38 patients, all suffering from chronic psychosis, the concentration of serotonin in the blood platelets as a function of a psychopathologic classification. The 38 patients, 17 men and 21 women, with a mean age of 46 years, diagnosed as schizophrenics (INSERM classification) were categorized according to their specific psychosis (types I and II of J. Guyotat) on examination of their clinical reports by two independent clinicians. This categorization returned 20 psychotics of type I, 16 psychotics of type II and 2 psychotics were difficult to classify. Blood samples were taken from both patients and from 47 controls at 10 o'clock in the morning, two hours after breakfast. The concentration of serotonin in the blood platelets was subsequently examined using the technique of liquid chromatography. The results obtained did not show any significant difference between the chronic psychotics and the control group. The average level of platelet serotonin is 5.09 for psychosis of type I and 3.56 for psychosis of type II, but the value of this difference does not indicate a significant statistical difference; however the tight grouping of serotonin levels in the psychotics of type II looked interesting because they were similar to those of the control in being more homogeneous than those of the psychotics of type I.