Immunological Abnomalities in Schizophrenia

Cho, Juyeon; Park, Doobyung; Lee, Kilhong

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to investigate 1) the difference of the immune function between schizophrenic patients and healthy normal control:2) the correlation between the severity of symptoms and immune functions in schizophrenia:and 3) the differences between the positive and negative symptom group of schizophrenia and conrols, respectively.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The subjects were thirty patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia and had undergone 2 weeks of drug free period before this study. Thirty-two healthy young adults were recruited for control. The following immunological functions were observed in the patients on admission and the normal control at the same day: WBC count, lymphocyte subpopulations(T cell, B cell, CD4+ cell, CD8+ cell, CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio), natural killer(NK) cell count and percentage, serum immunoglobulin levels(Ig G, Ig A, Ig M), total hemolytic complement activity(CH50). The schizophrenic patients were classified into positive and negative symptom group by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS) on the sampling day. The severity of symptoms was assessed by using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale(BPRS) in each day of immunological examinations.
RESULTS
No significant difference was observed by measuring several immunological fuctions from schizophrenic patients and normal controls. A significant positive correlation was established between symptom severity and Ig A, the number and percentage of total lymphocyte. In contrast a negative correlation between symptom severity and number of CD8+ cell was found. In the positive symptom group, the percentage of T cell and number of CD8+ cell were significantly reduced and Ig M level increased as compared to normal controls. In the negative symptom group, number and percentage of NK cell were decreased as compared to controls.
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that alterations in immune system in schizophrenia do not appear to be a specific biological correlate of this disorder, but, rather, may be associated to severity of symptoms and homogenous symptom subgroup. Also more specific marker of immune function for the homogenous patients group will be required to assess some identified changes of immune system in schizophrenia.