Lower Corneal Temperature in Neuroleptic-Treated vs. Drug-Free Schizophrenia Patients

Antipsychotic drugs (APDs) can decrease core body temperature in schizophrenia patients. Core temperature may correlate with corneal temperature and thus, we hypothesized that neuroleptic-treated schizophrenia patients would display lower corneal temperature compared with drug-free patients. Corneal temperature of 12 typical APD-treated and 9 drug-free male schizophrenia patients was assessed using a FLIR thermal imaging camera. The APD-treated patients exhibited substantially and significantly lower corneal temperature compared with the drug-free patients (31.57 ± 0.98°C vs. 34.55 ± 1.65°C; p < 0.0001). Our results suggest that APDs may decrease corneal/core temperature in schizophrenia patients. The relevance of this finding to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia or to the antipsychotic effect of neuroleptics merit further investigation.