Atypical antipsychotics and the relevance of glutamate and serotonin

In the present study, including 66 schizophrenic patients and 73 healthy controls, the effect of atypical antipsychotic treatment over a period of 14 weeks on psychotic symptoms and plasma levels of glutamate and monoaminergic metabolites was investigated. Treatment induced a modest reduction of psychotic symptoms in 42% of the patients (response criterion: Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale [BPRS] decrease ≥40%). Poor response was associated with severity of psychopathology, age and duration of disease. Glutamate at baseline was significantly higher in patients as compared to controls ( p