Garcia–Rizo C, et al. – In this study, the researchers tested the hypothesis that newly diagnosed naïve patients with non–affective psychosis would show abnormal blood cell count values after controlling for potential confounding factors compared to matched controls. They observed that abnormal immune response is present before the effects of medication and other confounders had taken place. They suggested that increased immune parameters might underlie the high ratio of medical co–morbidities described in schizophrenia.

Methods

• For the purpose of this study, 75 patients were compared with 80 controls matched for age, gender, body mass index and smoking.
• Examinations were directed before and after controlling for smoking.

Results

• According to the findings obtained, patients and controls showed similar mean values (×10³/ μL [SD]) for WBC count 7.02 [2.2] vs 6.50 [1.7] (P = .159), neutrophil count 4.25 [1.8] vs 3.84 [1.3] (P = .110) and monocyte count 0.43 [0.2] vs 0.40 [0.1] (P = .326).
• It was observed in the findings that 38 non-smoking patients demonstrated a higher WBC and neutrophil count compared with 49 matched controls after controlling for smoking.
• Findings revealed that respective means of 7.01 [2.2] vs 5.97 [1.4] (P = .011) for WBC and 4.24 [1.9] vs 3.51 [1.2] (P = .028) for neutrophil count.
• Monocyte count demonstrated an increased mean value 0.43 [0.2] vs 0.36 [0.1] with a trend towards signification (P = .063).