The effect of vitamin E addition to acute neuroleptic treatment on the emergence of extrapyramidal side effects in schizophrenic patients: An open label study

Pnina Dorfman-Etrog, Haggai Hermesh*, Leonid Prilipko, Abraham Weizman, Hanan Munitz

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorial

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The anti-oxidant vitamin E has been reported to be effective in the treatment of tardive dyskinesia. The present open label study examined the effect of supplemental therapy with vitamin E on acute extrapyramidal symptoms and cell enzymes in patients receiving neuroleptic drugs. Thirty- nine hospitalized schizophrenic patients were randomly assigned to two groups: group 1 (n=20) was treated with neuroleptics, and group 2 (n=19) with neuroleptics combined with a fixed dose of vitamin E (600 IU/day), administered for two weeks. All patients were assessed with the Simpson-Angus Rating Scale (Simpson and Angus, 1970) for neuroleptic induced Parkinsonism (NIP), Barnes' Akathisia Scale (Barnes, 1989), and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: laboratory parameters included serum creatine kinase (CK) activity, serum glutamate oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT) and white blood cell count (WBC). The addition of vitamin E to neuroleptic agents was associated with a trend (p=0.08) towards prevention of the emergence of NIP compared to neuroleptic treatment alone. Addition of vitamin E to neuroleptics may reduce the severity of acute NIP in schizophrenic patients. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)475-477
Number of pages3
JournalEuropean Neuropsychopharmacology
Volume9
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1999
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Akathisia
  • Creatine kinase
  • Extrapyramidal side effects
  • Neuroleptics
  • Oxidation
  • Parkinsonism
  • Schizophrenia
  • Vitamin E

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