Cardiovascular response to speaking in schizophrenics

Cardiovascular responses to speaking are compared in schizophrenic and nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients. Schizophrenics show a significantly smaller mean arterial pressure (MAP) response to speaking than nonschizophrenics, and a trend toward significantly smaller heart rate (HR) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) responses. Previous studies found that normal individuals consistently increase MAP when they speak. Nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients resemble normals, but a significant number of schizophrenics do not increase MAP when they speak. This difference is not explained by baseline differences between the two groups (Law of Initial Value effects). Effects of neuroleptic use cannot be excluded entirely, but the pattern of response is not consistent with a neuroleptic-induced attenuation of response.