Abstract
We investigated immune function in 41 patients with chronic schizophrenia (19 men, 22 women, 46.2±7.9 years old) who were psychiatric inpatients for at least 1 year. Patients were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and divided into two groups : a more severe schizophrenia group and a less severe schizophrenia group.
The mean percentages of CD3 and CD4 cells and the ratio of CD4/CD8 cells of schizophrenic patients were lower than those of healthy controls (6 men, 7 women, 40.3±14.8 years old) . The mean lymphocyte count of patients with less severe schizophrenia was higher than that of patients with more severe schizophrenia and that of healthy controls. The mean percentages of CD3 and CD25 cells of patients with more severe schizophrenia were lower than those of patients with less severe schizophrenia and those of healthy controls. The mean percentages of CD8 cells of patients with less severe schizophrenia was higher than that of patients with more severe schizophrenia.
There was no apparent relationship between the duration of drug therapy or the blood concentration of haloperidol and immune function. The daily equivalent haloperidol dose was negatively correlated with mean IgG concentration (P <0.05) and positively correlated with the mean percentages of CD8 cells (P <0.05) .
Our findings suggest that schizophrenic patients have cellular immune dysfunction and that the immune dysfunction affects various cytokines, including IL-2. The effect of antipsychotic drugs on the immune function in schizophrenic patients requires future investigation.
