[The use of nifedipine as a corrector of extrapyramidal side-effects of classical neuroleptics]

Abstract

The aim of the article was to study efficacy and safety of nifedipine in the correction of extrapyramidal side-effects emerged during conventional neuroleptics therapy. Fifty-one patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia received haloperidol in combination with nifedipine (25 patients) or haloperidol only (26 patients) during 26 weeks. Dynamics of psychopathological symptoms and extrapyramidal disorders were measured with PANSS, CGI, BARS, SARS and AIMS. Patients receiving haloperidol in combination with nifedipine had the lower AIMS scores indicating appearances of dyskinesia and less marked (on the trend to statistical significance) SARS scores measuring parkinsonian symptoms as compared to patients receiving monotherapy with haloperidol. The administration of nifedipine in combination with haloperidol did not reduce the therapeutic efficacy of the latter and did not lead to the increase of side-effects. The data obtained suggest that nifedipine may be used as a perspective corrector of extrapyramidal disorders caused by classical neuroleptics.