Distal Colon Motility in Schizophrenic Patients

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Abstract
Although the dopaminergic blocking agents (DBA) haloperidol and sulpiride strongly inhibit distal colon motility in most nonpsychotic subjects (83%), this effect was registered in 10% of the 30 schizophrenic patients investigated in this study. In these cases, only sulpiride (an atypical DBA) displayed distal colon motility inhibition in schizophrenic subjects. When haloperidol (a classical DBA) produced any modification (in 23.3%), this was rather in the nature of an increase in motility. All these cases showed low or absent distal colon motility during preinjection periods. The fact that 3 different types of antinoradrenergic drugs (dihydroergotamine, phentolamine and clonidine), but not DBA, inhibited distal colon motility in 90% of the schizophrenic subjects suggests the existence of an overactivity of the noradrenergic system at this peripheral level.