Nosological and prognostic distinctions in schizophrenia: pharmacological validation in terms of therapeutic antagonism between anticholinergic anti-parkinsonism drugs and neuroleptics.

In studying the relationships between anticholinergic-neuroleptic interactions and the nosological and prognostic distinctions in schizophrenia, we have shown that these distinctions have clinicopathological meaning. The countertherapeutic anticholinergic effects seemed to be particularly evident in the good outcome, schizophreniform cases and differentiated between the three diagnostic subtypes. Such effects were most conspicuous in the catatonics who also had the most favorable prognosis, while the paranoids differed from others in not only showing the least anticholinergic effects but also in not conforming to the relationship between these effects and prognosis. The findings are briefly considered in relation to those with wheat gluten which has also been shown to be a countertherapeutic factor in schizophrenia in another study.