Serum PGE2, 15d-PGJ, PPARγ and CRP levels in patients with schizophrenia.

Many hypotheses have been proposed for the development of schizophrenia, including the one proposing that exogenous and endogenous factors are linked to inflammatory processes. There is strong evidence about the immunological and inflammatory dysfunction in schizophrenia. In this study, we aimed to measure serum 15-deoxy-delta(12,14)-prostaglandin J (15d-PGJ), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma(PPARγ), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. Forty-four patients and 39 healthy volunteers were included in the study. Serum PGE2, 15d-PGJ, PPARγ and CRP levels were measured in both the groups. Demographic data forms were filled out for the patient group, and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale and Calgary Depression scale were used to assess patients' clinical status. Serum PGE2, 15d-PGJ and PPARγ levels were found to be significantly lower in patients with schizophrenia than in healthy controls. There was no significant relationship between the serum PGE2, 15d-PGJ and PPARγ levels and CRP levels.In this study, the evidence of systemic inflammatory conditions in patients with schizophrenia was found. The duration of the disease has been found to be the only variable that independently affects all three biomarker levels in the patients with schizophrenia.

The association of serum nesfatin-1 and ghrelin levels with metabolic syndrome in patients with schizophrenia.

Nesfatin-1 and ghrelin are two hormones which has opposite effects and play role in food intake. This study was planned on the idea that both metabolic syndrome and psychiatric disorders are associated with nesfatin-1 and ghrelin. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the levels of ghrelin and nesfatin-1 in patients with schizophrenia, by taking confounding factor as the metabolic syndrome (MS). 55 patients with schizophrenia and 33 healthy controls were included in the study.11 out of the 55 patients (%20) has MS. Serum ghrelin and nesfatin-1 levels of schizophrenia patients with MS have been compared with both healthy controls and schizophrenia patients without MS. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly higher serum nesfatin-1 levels compared to healthy controls. But serum ghrelin levels was not different in both groups. Serum nesfatin-1 concentrations were significantly higher in the schizophrenia patients with MS (10.51-350.8pg/ml) with respect to the healthy control group (4.86-68.91pg/ml). There was no significant statistical difference between the three groups in terms of ghrelin levels. Our findings suggests that, MS presence also contributed to significantly high levels of nesfatin-1 level. Nesfatin-1 may have a part in a novel studies regarding the treatment of schizophrenia and its metabolic effects.

Is the relationship between affective temperament and resilience different in depression cases with and without childhood trauma?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate if the relationship between affective temperament and resilience in major depression is different in cases with and without childhood trauma. METHODS: For this purpose 100 cases with major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnosis according to DSM-IV were evaluated consecutively in their regular outpatient clinic follow-up interviews. Diagnostic interviews were done with SCID-I, affective temperament was evaluated with TEMPS-A (Evaluation of Temperament Memphis, Pisa, Paris and SanDiego-Autoquestionnaire) Temperament Questionnaire, resilience was evaluated with The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA)-Turkish version. The presence of childhood trauma (CT) was determined by Early Trauma Inventory. RESULTS: In MDD cases without CT a correlation was present between psychological resilience and hyperthymic temperament, while there was a correlation between psychological resilience and depressive temperament in cases with CT. The relationship between depressive temperament and psychological resilience in cases with CT was observed in the perception of self, family cohesion, and social resources dimensions of psychological resilience. CONCLUSION: In depression cases with and without childhood trauma, the relationship between temperament and resilience appears to be different. According to our results psychological resilience was associated with hyperthymic temperament in depressive cases without childhood trauma, while it was associated with depressive temperament in depressive cases with childhood trauma.