BACKGROUND: Several immunological abnormalities, such as decreased T-cell interleukin-2 production and abnormal cellular and humoral reactivity to neurons, had been associated with patients who have schizophrenia. Several researches have been conducted to study the correlation of elevated inflammatory markers with the symptomatology of schizophrenia. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to determine the levels of C-reactive protein, which is a general marker for infection and inflammation, in patients with Schizophrenia in acute exacerbation and compare these to the levels of C-reactive protein in patients with Schizophrenia in remission. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out on in-patients at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. Serum levels of C-reactive protein in adult patients were determined during an acute exacerbation of Schizophrenia. These were compared to Creactive protein levels of patients with Schizophrenia in remission. PASW Statistics 18 (SPSS) was used for data management, tabulation and analysis. RESULTS: Cases of eighty-six (86) patients, seen by the principal investigator during OPD consults were reviewed, 43 of which had Schizophrenia in Acute Exacerbation and also 43 of patients were in Remission. The mean CRP level of patients in acute exacerbation was 7.05 mg/L (SD=0.23), which was higher than the mean CRP level of patients in remission at 5.30 mg/L (SD=0.30). CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that a stronger association exists between an acute exacerbation of Schizophrenia and elevated C-Reactive protein, in the absence of another systemic inflammatory disease when compared to the association between levels of Creactive protein in patients with Schizophrenia, in remission. This finding could pave the way for initiation of studies examining whether adjunct treatment of anti-inflammatory drugs with anti-psychotics will improve disease outcome.
C-Reactive Protein ; Schizophrenia