Oxytocin system dysfunction in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia: Alterations of blood oxytocin levels and effect of a genetic variant of OXTR.
J Psychiatr Res
; 138: 219-227, 2021 06.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33866050
ABSTRACT
Treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) has a quite complex pathophysiology that includes not only severe positive symptoms but also other symptom domains. Much attention has been devoted to the overlapping psychological and biological profiles of schizophrenia and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). We compared TRS patients (n = 30) with schizophrenia patients in remission (RemSZ, n = 28) and ASD patients (n = 28), focusing on general cognitive and social cognitive impairment and oxytocin system dysfunction. Our analyses revealed that there was no difference in oxytocin concentration among the three groups. The TRS patients' oxytocin blood concentrations were positively correlated with their processing speed and theory-of-mind scores, whereas the RemSZ and ASD groups had no significant relation with any measures. Rs53576, a single nucleotide polymorphism on the oxytocin receptor gene, affected social cognition abilities in the schizophrenia group. Although the overall findings are preliminary, they indicate that oxytocin system dysfunction could be involved in the serious cognitive deficits in TRS patients. Further, these results suggest that patients with TRS might have early neurodevelopmental abnormalities based on their shared biological features with ASD patients.
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Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Esquizofrenia
/
Transtorno do Espectro Autista
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Psychiatr Res
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Japão