Gouzoulis-Mayfrank E, Heekeren K, Thelen B, Lindenblatt H, Kovar K A, Sass H, Geyer M A
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Technology (RWTH), Aachen, Germany.
Behav Pharmacol. 1998 Nov;9(7):561-6. doi: 10.1097/00008877-199811000-00011.
Schizophrenic patients exhibit deficits in indices of sensorimotor gating, such as habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex. Hallucinogenic drug-induced states are putative models for the early and acute stages of schizophrenic and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Hallucinogenic drugs have been shown to disrupt PPI and/or retard habituation of the startle reflex in animal models of schizophrenia, consistent with the view of hallucinogen-induced states as 'model psychoses'. We evaluated the effects of the hallucinogen psilocybin on PPI and habituation of the startle reflex in a double-blind, placebo-controlled human study with 12 healthy subjects. In contrast to animal studies, in our small human sample, psilocybin increased PPI, while having no clear effect on habituation (n = 6). These findings must be considered preliminary because several factors, including dose regimens and experimental parameters, may influence the results of studies on startle plasticity. Further investigations both with psychotic patients in different stages of the disease and with human and animal models of schizophrenia are needed in order to explore the effects of hallucinogens on sensorimotor gating and the relationship between information processing in hallucinogenic drug-induced states and the naturally occurring psychoses.
精神分裂症患者在感觉运动门控指标方面存在缺陷，如惊吓反射的习惯化和前脉冲抑制（PPI）。致幻药物诱导的状态被认为是精神分裂症和精神分裂症谱系障碍早期和急性期的模型。在精神分裂症动物模型中，致幻药物已被证明会破坏PPI和/或延缓惊吓反射的习惯化，这与致幻剂诱导状态为“模型精神病”的观点一致。我们在一项有12名健康受试者的双盲、安慰剂对照人体研究中评估了致幻剂裸盖菇素对PPI和惊吓反射习惯化的影响。与动物研究不同，在我们的小样本人体研究中，裸盖菇素增加了PPI，而对习惯化没有明显影响（n = 6）。这些发现必须被视为初步的，因为包括剂量方案和实验参数在内的几个因素可能会影响惊吓可塑性研究的结果。为了探索致幻剂对感觉运动门控的影响以及致幻药物诱导状态下的信息处理与自然发生的精神病之间的关系，需要对处于疾病不同阶段的精神病患者以及精神分裂症的人类和动物模型进行进一步研究。
