Abstract
Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) has been linked to cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, which has been documented in previous reviews by several authors. However, a trend has recently emerged in this field moving from studying schizophrenia as a disease to studying psychosis as a group. This review article focuses on recent BDNF studies in relation to cognition in human subjects during different stages of the psychotic process, including subjects at high risk of developing psychosis, patients at their first episode of psychosis, and patients with chronic schizophrenia. We aim to provide an update of BDNF as a biomarker of cognitive function on human subjects with schizophrenia or earlier stages of psychosis, covering new trends, controversies, current research gaps, and suggest potential future developments in the field. We found that most of current research regarding BDNF and cognitive symptoms in psychosis is done around schizophrenia as a disease. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the study of the relationship between BDNF and cognitive symptoms to psychotic illnesses of different stages and origins.
Highlights
Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is the most widely distributed neurotrophin in the brain and it has been associated with several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
Theleritis et al [25] found a significant effect of a history of separation, physical abuse, and sexual abuse on BDNF levels, with lower levels in those who experienced the traumatic event compared to those who did not. These findings suggest a possible role for BDNF in the onset of psychosis in individuals exposed to early trauma, which proposes it as a potential biomarker of the deleterious effects of childhood trauma on brain plasticity [25]
The role of BDNF as a biomarker of different symptomatic domains in several psychiatric pathologies has been studied from various points of view
Summary
Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is the most widely distributed neurotrophin in the brain and it has been associated with several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The search for molecular biomarkers of cognition has been an important field of research in patients with schizophrenia, in which BDNF has been identified as one of the main ones, along with others such as inflammatory markers [2]. BDNF and Cognition in Psychosis or prognostic biomarker in various psychiatric pathologies, including schizophrenia, and depression, bipolar disorder, as well as anxiety disorders. It has been related in these pathologies with different symptomatic domains, including the cognitive, and the emotional and social domains, so it would not be a pathognomonic or specific marker of any particular disorder or symptomatic group [8]
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