Anti-inflammatory strategies in the treatment of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a major mental illness with a lifetime prevalence of about 1%. Antipsychotic drugs, with a primary mechanism of action that involves dopamine receptor blockade, are the mainstay in the treatment of the disorder. However, despite optimum antipsychotic treatment, few patients return to pre-morbid levels; the treatment deficit includes refractory positive symptoms, negative symptoms, mood impairments, cognitive impairments, social impairments, and/or a variety of medication-related adverse effects, including extrapyramidal symptoms, metabolic disturbances, hyperprolactinemia, and others. To address these, antipsychotic treatment has been augmented with psychosocial interventions, cognitive rehabilitation, different kinds of electrical and magnetic brain stimulation, and a large range of drugs from the neuropsychiatric as well as, surprise, the general medical pharmacopeia. The pleomorphic pathophysiology of schizophrenia includes abnormalities in immunological and inflammatory pathways, and so it is not surprising that anti-inflammatory drugs have also been trialed as augmentation agents in schizophrenia. This article critically examines the outcomes after augmentation with conventional anti-inflammatory interventions; results from randomized controlled trials do not encourage the use of either aspirin (1000 mg/day) or celecoxib (400 mg/day), both of which have been studied for this indication during the past decade and a half.