The acute periventricular injury syndrome: a possible animal model for psychotic disease.

A new experimental brain syndrome involving localized periventricular damage induced by intracerebroventricular injections of lysophosphatidyl choline has been developed in adult rats. The acute periventricular injury syndrome is characterized by transient weight loss, decreased emotionality, extreme postural indifference (catalepsy), inappropriate aggressive responses, impaired grooming, cerebral ventricular enlargement, and periventricular damage to both cells and fiber sheaths. This syndrome appears to simulate several features of schizophrenia, and it may prove useful in the study of psychotic disorders in man.