Abstract

Elevated Level of C-Reactive Protein in Drug Naive Patients with Schizophrenia

Author(s): Bisu Singh, Sikta Banerjee, Nirmal Kumar Bera, Chitta R. Nayak and Tapas Kumar Chaudhuri

The well known inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP), was investigated in the drug naïve and antipsychotic medicating patients to understand the role of inflammation in the etiopathology of schizophrenia. The level of serum CRP was investigated among 64 schizophrenic patients, diagnosed with DSM IV criteria and categorized into different subgroup of schizophrenia. Latex agglutination test was performed to measure the level of CRP. The limitation of detection of serum CRP was less than 6 mg/L. CRP was treated as categorical variable: normal (6 mg/L) and elevated ( : 6mg/L). Further, patients were made to answer a questionnaire, which included self-reported age, sex, medical history, age of onset, substance abuse etc. All subjects came from an India-born Bengali population. 3 Paranoid patients showed the elevated level of CRP ( : 6mg/L) whereas rest of the patients had normal CRP ( < 6mg/L). When the findings were compared to the demographic variables, the results showed a significant value for the elevated level of CRP and drug naïve status. The study suggests that some kind of inflammatory process may be one of the etiological factors for schizophrenia and the antipsychotic drug might play an important role in down regulating this inflammatory process and thereby bringing the level of CRP to the normal state.