Event-Related Evoked Potentials in the Course of Treatment of Affective-Delusional Conditions

摘要

In order to study the neurophysiological correlates and to find possible predictors of therapeutic response in patients with affective-delusional disorders, correlation analysis of the relationships between the temporal parameters of components of auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) and the changes in the quantitative clinical assessments of mental state has been carried out in attack-like schizophrenia patients with depressive-delusional (group 1) and manic-delusional (group 2) conditions. Statistically significant correlations have been found between the peak latencies (PLs) of the main AERP components and the severity of psychopathological symptoms before the course of treatment, as well as between the initial temporal AERP parameters (before treatment) and quantitative clinical assessments of the patients' conditions at the initial stage of remission. More manifest residual positive, negative, and general psychopathological symptoms of schizophrenia (in group 1, also those of depression and anxiety) after the course of treatment were associated with smaller initial (before treatment) PLs of "early" AERP components (P1 and N1) and with larger initial values of "late" ones (P2, N2, and P3) in both groups of patients. The results add to our understanding of the basic brain mechanisms of affective-delusional disorders and allow the possible neurophysiological predictors of the efficacy of treatment for these disorders to be found.