The Use of the EmotionalStroop Test to Establish the Onset and Efficacy of Antipsychotic Activity

Twenty-eight subjects who met criteria for delusional disorder, of whom 16 were on neuroleptic treatment and 12 were not, were tested using an Emotional Stroop Test to measure aspects of their deployment of attentional resources in response to emotionally valent material. Interference indices were calculated to assess their level of accommodation to depressive, anxiety-related and threat-related words. Those who were on neuroleptics demonstrated significantly less interference from anxiety and threat-related words, raising the possibility that this test might provide a sensitive measure of the onset and efficacy of antipsychotic activity. The differential effects on anxiety and threat-related words also suggest that the antipsychotic activity of current neuroleptics is non-specifically tranquillizing rather than specifically psychotolytic in nature.