[A method for studying pupilomotorics under the influence of neurolepic medication (author's transl)]

Abstract

A pupilostatic method of measuring the pupillary diameter after standardized exclusion of retinal impulses is described. The pupil is photographed by a polaroid camera at a 1 : 2 scale. On the photographs the pupillary diameter is measured under a magnifying lens. We then present data of application of the method in a clinical experiment. The question we investigated was to determine physical effects of neuroleptic drugs in changes of the pupillary diameter. Our patients were 40 acute schizophrenics treated with two different neuroleptic drugs. It was found that already after a single dose of 1 mg 4'-fluora-4-[4-hydroxy-4-(4-chlorophenyl)-piperidyl-(1)]-butyrophenone (haloperidol) or 10 mg 2-chloro-11-(4-methyl-1-peperazinyl)-dibenz[b,f]-1,4-oxazepine (loxapine), respecitvely, a distinct change in pupillary diameter was measureable. The statistically significant differences in the effects of the two neuroleptics point as a further finding to the sensitivity of the developed method. This difference was paralleled by our clinical observation that loxapine showed more distinctly sedative effects in comparison with haloperidol.