Bahagia Loebis

Serum Levels of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha in Chronic Schizophrenic Versus Healthy Control and Correlation with Severity of Illness

Schizophrenia is a common psychotic disorder, with a risk of about 1%, the aetiology of schizophrenia unknown, one of which includes immunological disorders. Although, there are conflicting results, most studies focusing on plasma levels or the production of mitogen-stimulated cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor. This study compared serum levels of Tumor necrosis factor alpha in male chronic schizophrenic patients and healthy control, and the correlation with severity of illness. This study was conducted on 40 male patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenic and 40 healthy control. Severity illness was assessed with Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Serum levels of Tumor necrosis factor alpha were measured by immunossay. Tumor necrosis factor alpha levels were significantly higher in male patients with chronic schizophrenic to healthy control subjects. Correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between the serum levels of Tumor necrosis factor alpha and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale total score. This study suggest that Tumor necrosis factor alpha may be involved in the psychopathology of schizophrenia and may be a marker of schizophrenia. Keywords— Male patients; Chronic schizophrenic; Serum TNF-α; Healthy control; Severity of illness

The Comparison of Olanzapine and Risperidone Treatment in Male Schizophrenic Patients using Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale (PANSS)

INTRODUCTION: The most common method to compare olanzapine and risperidone is by calculating the score of positive and negative syndromes scale (PANSS). However, there were some conflicting results mentioned from previous studies. AIM: This study aimed to compare the treatment of olanzapine and risperidone using PANSS, limited to only male patients receiving inpatient treatment to obtain more significant results. METHODS: The subjects of this study were male schizophrenic patients in the acute phase of treatment (N = 68) who were hospitalised at the Mental Hospital Prof. Dr M. Ildrem, Indonesia. These participants were divided into two groups and treated with different atypical antipsychotics (olanzapine, 20 mg/day [n = 34]; risperidone, 6 mg/day [n = 34]). The scores of PANSS from both groups were collected from pre-test and post-test after 6 -week treatment. RESULTS: The improvement of the schizophrenia symptoms measured by PANSS after 6 weeks showed significant differences in the scores of PANSS between the male patient groups treated with olanzapine and risperidone (p-value < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The group of olanzapine shows a higher improvement of the scores of PANSS than that the group of risperidone.