Use of which drugs may induce symptoms with a close differential diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia?
High-Yield Explanation
Ans. B. Amphetamines* Amphetamine intoxication can result in a psychosis very closely resembling acute paranoid schizophrenia, with symptoms including paranoid delusions and visual hallucinations.* Some investigators feel that prominent visual hallucinations and a relative absence of thought disorder are more characteristic of amphetamine psychosis, but other investigators feel the symptoms are indistinguishable.* Other drugs that produce psychoses similar to schizophrenia include phencyclidine PCP) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).