Abstract
Background: Studies have shown that there are deviations in the results of peripheral blood counts, which lead to increased values of the neutrophils-to-lymphocytes ratio (NLR) in schizophrenia. Antipsychotic drugs have proven to lower the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and a growing number of studies indicate a similar effect on NLR values. Methods: We identified inpatients with schizophrenia and collected data of NLR at the beginning (NLR1) and end (NLR2) of hospitalization, the status of antipsychotic medication on admission and potential confounding factors. In the statistical analysis, we applied a linear mixed model. Results: After the inclusion and exclusion process the records of 40 patients (np = 40) and 71 hospitalizations (nh = 71) were analyzed. We found that in the group of antipsychotics-naive patients, the NLR1 were significantly higher than the NLR2 values. Such a difference did not occur in the case of non-antipsychotics-naïve patients. Age and the diagnosis of hypothyroidism influenced the value of change in NLR from the beginning to the end of hospitalization in a given patient (ΔNLR). Conclusions: The study confirmed the lowering effect of antipsychotics on NLR values in psychosis. The NLR may potentially be a tool for assessing response to treatment with antipsychotics.
Highlights
IntroductionSchizophrenia is a chronic mental illness characterized by positive symptoms (e.g., delusions, hallucinations), negative symptoms (e.g., anhedonia, avolition), and cognitive impairment (e.g., impairment of abstract thinking or executive functions) accompanied by degenerative changes in the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (CNS) [1]
Published: 31 December 2021Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness characterized by positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive impairment accompanied by degenerative changes in the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (CNS) [1].Disturbances in neurotransmission and nervous tissue metabolism are important for the symptomatology of schizophrenia and its etiopathogenesis [2–5]
In our retrospective study, we showed that neutrophils-to-lymphocytes ratio (NLR) values have been significantly different at the beginning and the end of hospitalization in patients who had not taken antipsychotic drugs within one month before admission to the hospital due to exacerbation of schizophrenia
Summary
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness characterized by positive symptoms (e.g., delusions, hallucinations), negative symptoms (e.g., anhedonia, avolition), and cognitive impairment (e.g., impairment of abstract thinking or executive functions) accompanied by degenerative changes in the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (CNS) [1]. Disturbances in neurotransmission (e.g., dopaminergic or glutamatergic pathways) and nervous tissue metabolism (e.g., in the kynurenine pathway, glucose metabolism, antioxidants metabolism) are important for the symptomatology of schizophrenia and its etiopathogenesis [2–5]. Several different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the causes of these disorders, growing evidence suggests that immune dysfunction, neuroinflammation, and the associated oxidative stress, modulated by dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis), may play a key role in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia [6,7]. Disturbances in the cytokine network in Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
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