title: Relapse of paranoid psychotic state in methamphetamine model of schizophrenia.
abstract: The study of the clinical course of methamphetamine (MAP) psychosis yields insights into the biological aspect of the relapse of the paranoid psychotic state with hallucination in schizophrenia. A series of MAP psychosis studies in Japan conducted over a period of more than four decades revealed three types of clinical courses of MAP psychosis after discontinuation of MAP: transient type, prolonged type, and persistent type. Identification of the latter two indicates a lasting change in the brain that produces and maintains a schizophrenia-like paranoid psychotic state without MAP. The characteristic course seen in the transient type is acute recurrence of the psychotic state after a long remission period, almost identical to the initial episode, due to reuse of MAP or to psychological stressors. Such lasting vulnerability of the brain to schizophrenia-like psychotic symptoms may be caused by a lasting sensitization of the brain to the psychotogenic action of MAP resulting from its chronic abuse. Experimental studies using animals sensitized to MAP-induced stereotypy suggest that lasting enhancement of MAP-induced dopamine release in the striatum and nucleus accumbens is related to the development and expression of brain vulnerability to schizophrenic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Psychiatry, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Miyagi, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Numachi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hamamura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003042:Cocaine; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004298:Dopamine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008694:Methamphetamine; D011605:Psychoses, Substance-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D008694:Methamphetamine; D003042:Cocaine; D004298:Dopamine