Effect of risperidone treatment on insulin-like growth factor-1 and interleukin-17 in drug naïve first-episode schizophrenia

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that the inflammatory system is activated in schizophrenia and antipsychotics may affect cytokines levels. we conducted a cross-sectional and prospective study.One hundred and thirteen patients and 58 normal subjects matched by gender, age were enrolled in the study. All the patients had risperidonemonotherapy and undertook a 10-week follow-up. Serum levels of IL-17 and IGF-1 were examined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) was applied to estimate the clinical symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. All procedures were repeated at the 10 weeks for patients group.The serum levels of IL-17 and IGF-1 in patients were significantly higher than in normal people. After treatment, IGF-1 levels in patients decreased significantly, whereas the IL-17 serum levels had no significant change compared to their baseline concentration. IGF-1 levels at the baseline were negatively associated with the reduction in negative symptoms score after controlling for age, gender distribution, education, smoking status, and WHR. Additionally, the magnitude of IGF-1 change was negatively correlated with negative symptoms score change after controlling for potential confounding variables. Results suggested that the inflammatory system is activated and serum IGF-1 may contribute to the pathophysiology of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.