Schizophrenia and Electrodermal activity: A review
The present article reviews recent studies concerned with electrodermal activity in schizophrenia. These studies have yielded two robust findings. The first finding is that a large proportion of schizophrenic patients fail to display an electrodermal orienting response to novel stimuli in the standard habituation paradigm. This electrodermal non-responding is related to a number of characteristics (e.g., third ventricle enlargement; poor therapeutic response to neuroleptics etc.). The second finding refers to the observation that a sudden increase in tonic electrodermal levels preceeds psychotic breakdown in schizophrenic patients. The present article evaluates both findings. It is argued that these findings have considerable theoretical value. Moreover, they might have some practical implications in that they enable clinicians to predict more accurately the course and prognosis of individual patients.