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 degrees C vs. 34.55 +/- 1.65 degrees 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. Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel