Indolethylamine-N-methyltransferase activity in psychiatric patients and controls
Abstract:
The level of INMT activity was determined in the sera of 29 psychiatric patients and 11 healthy controls from St. Louis; and in 13 psychiatric patients and 15 healthy controls from Chicago. The level of enzyme activity in the serum of paranoid schizophrenics in the St. Louis group was significantly higher than in other types of schizophrenics. The mean level of enzyme activity in the serum in nonschizophrenic psychiatric patients in the Chicago group was significantly higher than that in the same group of patients from St. Louis. The serum level of INMT activity in all psychiatric patients and schizophrenic patients from St. Louis was positively correlated with severity of delusions. The only significant difference in the Chicago patients was that the occurrence of depressive features was greater in the group of patients with a low serum INMT level than in the group with a high enzyme level.
