Creatine phosphokinase and schizophrenia in Singapore

This is a study to find out whether serum creatine phosphokinase activity (CPK) is raised in Oriental schizophrenic patients. CPK was found to be elevated in Caucasian schizophrenic patients more commonly during the acute period of the illness. The CPK involved is the skeletal isoenzyme CPK (MM) and not the brain isoenzyme CPK(BB). CPK elevation is associated with motor nerve and myoneural abnormalities. In this study of 150 patients the CPK activity varied from 12 to 902 mu/l with 78 patients having CPK activity above the normal range of 15-55 mu/l. This shows that Oriental schizophrenic patients may have similar pathophysiology. There is no relation between the CPK activities and the patients' age, duration of illness, presence of delusions or hallucinations, or abnormal behaviour. Such results support a genetic basis for the abnormality.