High dose diazepam in schizophrenia.

The pharmacological properties and the equivocal antipsychotic effects of diazepam reported in the literature suggested the use of high doses of this drug on schizophrenic patients to re-evaluate its usefulness. Treatment of 15 schizophrenic patients with doses of up to 400 mg/day showed a specific effect on hallucinations and certain forms of delusion. One group (nine patients with paranoid-hallucinatory and one with schizo-affective psychosis) showed a significant reduction in psychopathology as documented in the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and the Global Clinical Impressions (GCI), whereas five other patients (all of the schizo-affective type with symptoms of depression, euphoria, and/or psychotic anxiety) did not respond and had to be withdrawn from the study. Under the treatment an absence of sedative effects and a development of the feeling of well-being and euphoria were noticed. In three patients with doses of over 260 mg/day a marked loss of inhibitions in sexual and social behaviour was observed. It is concluded that high doses of diazepam may be useful in certain types of schizophrenia.