BETA-ENDORPHIN LEVELS IN CEREBROSPINAL FLUID IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM PATHOLOGY

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the beta-endorphin concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 39 patients: 15 patients with various neurological diseases without algesic syndrome—epilepsy, craniocerebral injury, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis—and 24 schizophrenic patients with expressed symptoms of the disease, which is referred to adolescent adversely developing “nuclear” and to adolescent paranoid and shift-like schizophrenia (ICD 295.1, 295.2 and partially 295.3). The average age of the group of the patients with neurological disease was 38.9 years, and that of schizophrenics was 33.2 years. Cerebrospinal fluid was obtained by lumbar puncture always at the same time, before the first meal. The level of beta-endorphin in CSF of neurological patients was determined once. Beta-endorphin determination was carried out by radioimmune assay using test-sets of “immuno-nuclear orporation” (USA), the sensitivity of which equaled to 20pg/ml (6fmol/ml). No significant difference was found by comparing corresponding values of the groups of schizophrenics and neurological patients.