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Abstract
Extracellular single-unit recording techniques were used to determine whether chronic
treatment with either a typical antipsychotic drug (APD), haloperidol (HAL) or an
atypical APD clozapine (CLOZ) causes a time-dependent reduction of spontaneously active
norepinephrine (NE) neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC). Neither HAL nor CLOZ, after
prolonged treatment, reduced NE activity. In addition, subchronic amphetamine (AMP)
treatment did not increase NE activity. If these results can be extended to humans,
they suggest that NE hyperactivity is not the cause for schizophrenic symptoms. Interestingly,
chronic CLOZ markedy increased NE activity which may contribute to its low potential
for causing extrapyramidal side-effects.