Effects of chronic fluoxetine treatment on behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to meta-chloro-phenylpiperazine in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Eric Hollander, Concetta DeCaria, Robert Gully, Anca Nitescu, Raymond F. Suckow, Jack M. Gorman, Donald F. Klein, Michael R. Liebowitz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

118 Scopus citations

Abstract

To investigate the effect of fluoxetine on serotonergic sensitivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder (COD), the partial serotonin agonist metachlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) was compared to placebo under double-blind conditions in six patients with OCD before and during treatment with fluoxetine. Readministration of oral mCPP (0.5 mg/kg) after at least 12 weeks of fluoxetine treatment did not increase obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, in contrast to exacerbation of OC symptoms produced by mCPP before treatment. Chronic fluoxetine treatment resulted in a significant increase in prolactin and cortisol response to mCPP. This may be accounted for, however, by substantially increased plasma mCPP levels during fluoxetine treatment. Chronic fluoxetine treatment diminished the behavioral sensitivity to mCPP and did not diminish, but may have partially normalized, the neuroendocrine response to mCPP in patients with OCD. These adaptive homeostatic effects may reflect fluoxetine's antiobsessional mechanism.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalPsychiatry Research
Volume36
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1991
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • anxiety disorders
  • fluoxetine
  • meta-chlorophenylpiperazine
  • serotonin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Biological Psychiatry

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