Relationship Between Curative Effect and Serum Inflammatory Factors Level in Male Patients With First-Episode...

Background: A growing body of evidence shows that immune system disorders are one of the important etiological factors of schizophrenia. Inflammatory cytokines play a very critical role in the pathogenesis and treatment of schizophrenia. However, in the actual clinical practice, there is still a lack of confirmed biological indicators that can be used to evaluate the therapeutic effect of antipsychotics. Methods: In this study, 82 male patients with first-episode schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls were included. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores were evaluated, and the serum levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin 1β (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 17 (IL-17), and transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) were detected, both at baseline and 4 weeks later. The patients were divided into two groups, the effective group and the ineffective group, according to the reduction rate of PANSS. Results: In the case group, the levels of hs-CRP were significantly elevated (p = 0.00), whereas IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17 were significantly reduced as compared to the baseline (p = 0.01, 0.02, and 0.00, respectively). Importantly, the baseline levels of the five inflammatory factors were significantly higher in the case group as compared to the control group (p = 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, and 0.00, respectively). Post-treatment, the serum levels for IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17 were significantly higher in the effective group than in the ineffective group (p = 0.00, 0.00, and 0.01, respectively). For every increase in the amount of IL-1β, the risk of ineffectiveness increased by 7% (OR = 0.93 [0.86-1.00]; p = 0.04), whereas for every increase in the amount of IL-17, the risk of ineffectiveness increased by 5% (OR = 0.95 [0.90-0.99]; p = 0.03). Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the levels of inflammatory factors in patients with different therapeutic effects were different, and the changes in the amounts of IL-1β and IL-17 acted as predictors of poor efficacy.