[Use of vasopressin the treatment of the paranoid form of schizophrenia].

Forty-seven males suffering from paranoid schizophrenia running a paroxysm-like progressive course were treated with the synthetic neuropeptide arginine-vasopressin, a hormone of the posterior lobe of the hypophysis. The therapeutic effect of the hormone was confirmed by a complex of clinical, laboratory and pathopsychological techniques. Both objective methods of investigation and subjective assessment of the patients demonstrated a high efficacy of the drug which was expressed in a marked psychoenergizing action, a beneficial effect on emotional disorders, a memory improvement and a favourable influence on the apatho-abulic manifestations.