Serum Levels of High Sensitivity C-reactive Protein in Drug-naïve First-episode Psychosis and Acute Exacerbation of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective Findings about inflammatory processes in schizophrenia are increasing day by day. Inflammatory processes in schizophrenia are associated with both its etiology and clinical symptoms. Serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) is also one of these inflammatory processes. Particularly, it is thought to be closely related to clinical findings of patients with schizophrenia. Methods In this study, the relationship between clinical findings of hsCRP levels of patients with drug-naïve first-episode psychosis (FEP) and patients with schizophrenia in acute exacerbation phase is investigated. Clinical findings, psychometric properties (the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale), and hsCRP levels of patients were compared. Results Forty-eight patients with FEP, 74 patients with schizophrenia in acute exacerbation phase and 54 healthy controlled volunteers are included in the study. The most substantial finding in the study is that there is a positive correlation between hsCRP levels and severity of positive symptoms of both patient groups, with FEP and with schizophrenia. The second most substantial finding is there is no significant difference between patients with FEP and schizophrenia, in terms of hsCRP. Conclusion The relationship between hsCRP and positive symptom severity in two groups of patients supports the inflammatory hypothesis in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia. This finding is supportive of close relation between inflammatory processes and clinical findings of patient with schizophrenia.

Plasma Apelin, Visfatin and Resistin Levels in Patients with First Episode Psychosis and Chronic Schizophrenia

“…It is thought to be there is a close relation between schizophrenia and autoimmune processes. There are strong data particularly on proinflammatory processes in schizophrenia [1,3]. Findings of our study are also supportive of this hypothesis.…”

“…Several types of adipocyte receptor have been found in several central nervous system areas, and have been shown to affect brain function through neuroplastic processes [4][5][6]. These findings clearly showed the immune theory of psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia [1,3,6,7].…”

“…Schizophrenia is a complex disease and a devastating neuropsychiatric illness affecting approximately 1% of the total population worldwide over the average lifetime [1,2]. Its etiology is unclear yet.…”

“…Its etiology is unclear yet. One of the important hypotheses to explain its pathogenesis is about immune dysfunction [1,2]. One of the most interesting and challenging areas of research is the role of adipocytes in the etiology of mental disorders [2,3].…”

Anti-inflammatory Strategies for Schizophrenia: A Review of Evidence for Therapeutic Applications and Drug Repurposing

“…Recent studies revealed that pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-, were increased in the peripheral blood of patients with schizophrenia during acute psychotic exacerbations, suggesting that immunological alterations may affect the clinical status after the onset of illness [39,40]. Cytokines are also released from microglia, the innate immune cells residing in the CNS, in response to injury, infection, and stressful life events [41].…”