Biochemical and Morphological Abnormalities in Paranoid and Nonparanoid Schizophrenia

Abstract

The understanding of the biological mechanism of schizophrenia has progressed during the past three decades since the advent of antipsychotic drugs. However, the biochemical findings of the dopamine system in the central nervous system of the patients are still inconsistent. One reason for this gap is, of course, that schizophrenia itself could be a heterogeneous condition. Therefore, subjects for biological study should be chosen to represent as homogeneous a group as possible. In this sense, patients with paranoid schizophrenia form a representative group to study from the biological point of view.