024p a Clinical Trial of Adjunctive Allopurinol Treatment in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia: a Double Blind and Placebo Controlled Trial

S. Akhondzadeh , A. Safarcherati & H. Amini Psychiatric Research Centre, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences; Institute of Medicinal Plants, Tehran, Iran. Schizophrenia is a chronic progressive disease and it affects more than 1% of the population. The etiology of schizophrenia remains unknown in a majority of cases (Mohammadi and Akhondzadeh, 2001). There is a large amount of data showing that adenosine plays a role opposite to dopamine in the brain. Adenosine agonists and antagonists produce behavioral effects similar to dopamine antagonists and dopamine agonists, respectively (Akhondzadeh et al., 2000). Allopurinol, a well-known hypouricemic drug that inhibits xantine oxidase, has been used with controversial results as an add-on drug in the treatment of poorly responsive schizophrenic patients (Lara et al., 2001). Therefore, the purpose of the present investigation was to assess the efficacy of allopurinol as an adjuvant agent in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia in an eight-week double blind and placebo controlled trial.