Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that oxidative stress and inflammation play a role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Blood levels of pro - inflammatory cytokines in patients with schizophrenia were significantly higher than those of healthy controls. Furthermore, brain imaging studies using positron emission tomography (PET) suggest that microglial activation is detected in the brain of patients with schizophrenia. Taken together, antioxidants and anti - inflammatory compounds have been proposed as the novel therapeutic drugs for schizophrenia. Here the author would like to discuss the possibility of antioxidants (N-acetyl cysteine and sulforaphane) as prophylactic compounds for the onset of schizophrenia.
