HLA antigens and neuroleptic response in clinical subtypes of schizophrenia

The frequency of HLA antigens of A and B loci was examined in a carefully selected sample of 91 schizophrenic patients from central Italy. This population showed no increase in antigens compared with the control group. However, in agreement with previous studies, a slight increase in A1 was observed in the hebephrenic subgroup and, in a lesser extent, an increase of A2 was found in the paranoid subgroup. Although these increases are more prominent when the subgroups are compared and tend to support the case for genetic heterogeneity, they fail to reach statistical significance. Response to neuroleptic treatment was studied in an attempt to further subdivide the clinical subgroups. A1-negative and A2-positive paranoid patients demonstrated a statistical better response to neuroleptics. The findings suggest that schizophrenia should be considered a heterogenous disease and that response to neuroleptics can be employed as an instrument of biological subclassification.