Plasmatic somatostatin as a marker of positive symptoms of schizophrenia

1. Somatostatin displays a regulatory function on several aminergic neurotransmitters, including dopamine. In addition, decreased CSF levels of the peptide has been found in Schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. 2. In the present work, we have investigated levels of plasmatic somatostatin in a sample of 50 schizophrenic patients compared with a normal control group. 3. Somatostatin was increased in the patient group (p less than 0.01) as a whole but statistical analysis revealed that the increase was associated with the presence of positive symptoms (Factorial Analysis) with a significant correlation, specially with delusion and hallucination scores in the Andreasen rating scales.