Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the levels of peripheric biomarkers that have been associated with blood brain barrier (BBB) damage in healthy controls and two groups of patients with schizophrenia, those who received typical-atypical antipsychotics and those who received only atypical antipsychotics. Additionally, we sought relationships between these biomarkers and schizophrenia symptoms. Methods: This study was conducted with the inclusion of 41 healthy volunteers and 75 patients with schizophrenia. The biomarkers measured to evaluate BBB injury were as follows: spectrin breakdown product 145 (SBDP145), spectrin breakdown product 150 (SBDP150), ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), ubiquitin ligase cullin-3 (cullin), occludin and claudin, which were measured via ELISA. Symptoms of patients with schizophrenia were evaluated with the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI), and the general assessment of functionality (GAF). Results: Compared to controls, SBDP145 (p = 0.022) and cullin (p = 0.046) levels were significantly higher in patients with schizophrenia receiving atypical antipsychotic treatment. SBDP150 levels were lower in the combination treatment group compared to the control group (p = 0.022). Claudin (p = 0.804), occludin (p = 0.058) and UCHL1 (p = 0.715) levels were similar among groups. In recipients of combination treatment, SBDP145 levels were found to be positively correlated with SAPS-total (r = 0.440, p = 0.036) and SAPS-delusions (r = 0.494, p = 0.017) scores. Conclusion The relationships demonstrated in this study indicate that more comprehensive research is needed to understand whether BBB defects contribute to clinical characteristics in patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to perform validity and reliability examination of the Turkish form of Acceptance and Action Diabetes Questionnaire, and to investigate whether this scale is a measurement tool for evaluation of psychological flexibility levels in a sample of patients with diabetes in Turkey. METHODS: This study was conducted with 105 patients. Turkish forms of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Problem Areas in Diabetes Questionnaire (PAID), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-I and STAI-II), Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) and Turkish form of Acceptance and Action Diabetes Questionnaire (TAADQ) were applied. SPSS 20.0 and AMOS was used in statistical analysis. RESULTS: 56.12% of the patients were female and the mean of age was 54 (SD=±9.9) years. The mean duration of education was found 7.65 (SD=3.97) years. 74.8% of the patients most of whom (83.3%, n=85) had diabetes mellitus and the mean glycemic control calculated with HbA1c was 8.02±1.91. According to the final fit indices, we found that the revised and corrected 9-item model was superior over the previous model. Cronbach Alpha coefficient of TAADQ was found as 0.836. CONCLUSION: TAADQ is a valid and reliable assessment tool in Turkish population. So TAADQ will be a powerfull tool in assessing psychological flexibility in diabetes patients.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Education ; Female ; Humans ; Pliability ; Quality of Life ; Reproducibility of Results ; Turkey