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Published on: November 21, 2013
Pyridoxal plasma level in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients with and without tardive dyskinesia
Chanoch Miodownik1, Aviel Meoded, Igor Libov
1Division of Psychiatry, Ministry of Health Be'er Sheva Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel.
Background:
Motor disturbances in vitamin B6-deficient animals were described. Some clinical experiments showed that vitamin B6 may ameliorate different drug-induced movement disorders, including tardive dyskinesia (TD). The aim of this study was to compare plasma pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP) levels in schizophrenic patients with and without TD.
Method:
This study was conducted in the Be'er Sheva Mental Health Center from February 2006 to August 2006. Eighty-nine schizophrenic inpatients (40 have TD, 22 men and 18 women, 20-66 yrs old [mean, 48 yrs] and 49 schizophrenic inpatients, 30 men and 19 women, 21-66 yrs old (mean, 49 yrs), without any symptoms of motor disturbances [the control group]) were enrolled in the study. Measurement of PLP is performed by high-performance liquid chromatography separation in all patients.
Results:
There was a significant difference in plasma PLP levels between patients with TD and those without TD. The discrepancy between the groups was almost entirely attributable to the PLP levels of male patients: 12.4 +/- 11.4 vs 29.0 +/- 12.9 nM in men (P < 0.001), and 19.7 +/- 14.8 vs 22.0 +/- 13.6 nM in women (P > 0.5).
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that schizophrenic and schizoaffective male patients with TD have lower PLP plasma levels than non-TD patients.
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