Association Between Clinical Characteristics And Cognitive Function In Male Patients With Chronic Schizophrenia And Their Serum Level Of Neuropeptide

Objective:This study is to explore the association between clinical characteristics and cognitive function in male patients with chronic schizophrenia and their serum level of neuropeptide.Methods:The study group consisted of 70 male patients with chronic schizophrenia from Lianyungang psychiatric hospital(The Fourth People’s Hospital of Lianyungang,Ganyu psychiatric hospital,Guanyun and Donghai psychiatric hospital).All patients met the diagnostic criteria of schizophrenia in the fourth edition of American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders(DSM-IV).80 healthy individuals(all males)for the control group were recruited in the same period.Fasting venous blood was taken on the second day after all the subjects enrolled.The psychotic symptoms of the study group were assessed by the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale(PANSS),The cognitive function of all the subjects were assessed by Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status(RBANS).The serum neuropeptide levels of all the subjects including α-MSH,β-Endorphin,Neurotenin,Oxytocin and Substance P were measured by Luminex liquid suspension chip technology.All analyses were performed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0.A p-value<0.05 was considered significant.Results:1.The comparison of serum neuropeptide level of the study group(n=70)and control group(n=80)were showed that the results did not conform to the normal distributionas,The median and quartile M(QL,Qu)were used for statistical description.The results were as follows:Serum α-MSH levels were 4035.16(2331.62,7485.94)pg/ml vs 2112.57(1415.13,4111.99)pg/ml,Serum β-Endorphin levels were 2926.37(2183.36,4614.54)pg/ml vs 1810.78(1259.28,2335.20)pg/ml,Serum Neurotensin levels were 791.58(633.47,956.11)pg/ml vs 533.51(458.64,627.32)pg/ml,Serum Oxytocin levels were 2959.46(1530.39,3794.08)pg/ml vs 1999.99(1071.64,3054.55)pg/ml,and Serum Substance P levels were 506.31(288.72,708.86)pg/ml vs 244.24(159.06,361.96)pg/ml.The serum neuropeptide level of the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group(P<0.05).2.The total scale of RBANS and the five factor scores of immediate memory,visual span,speech function,attention and delayed memory in the study group were significantly lower than those in the control group(P<0.01).3.There were no significant correlations between the serum levels of α-MSH,βEndorphin,Neurotensin,Oxytocin and Substance P and the scores of the total scale,positive subscale,negative subscale and psychopathology subscale of PANSS in the study group(P>0.05).The levels of α-MSH,β-Endorphin,Neurotensin and Substance P were not correlated with the patient’s age,educational level,age of onset,course of disease and the same amount of chlorpromazine(all P>0.05).The level of serum Oxytocin was not correlated with the patient’s educational level,age of onset and course of disease(all P>0.05),but positively correlated with the same amount of chlorpromazine(r=0.263,P<0.05).4.There were no significant correlations among the serum levels of α-MSH,the scores of the total scale and its 5 subscale of RBANS in the study group(P>0.05).The serum levels of β-Endorphin were positively related with the scores of visual span scale(r=0.357,P<0.01),attention scale(r=0.259,P<0.05)and total scale of RBANS(r=0.237,P<0.05)in the study group.The serum levels of Neurotensin were positively related with the scores of visual span scale(r=0.291,P<0.05),attention scale(r=0.321,P<0.01),delayed memory scale(r=0.295,P<0.05)and total scale of RBANS(r=0.340,P<0.01)in the study group.The serum levels of Oxytocin were positively related with the scores of delayed memory scale(r=0.243,P<0.05)and total scale of RBANS(r=0.242,P<0.05)in the study group.The serum levels of Substance P were positively related with the scores of visual span scale(r=0.271,P<0.05)and total scale of RBANS(r=0.250,P<0.05)in the study group.Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the serum level of Oxytocin was the impact of cognitive function.Conclusion:1.The serum levels of α-MSH,β-Endorphin,Neurotensin,Oxytocin and Substance P in male patients with chronic schizophrenia are significantly higher than those in healthy controls,which indicated that these neuropeptides play a certain role in the pathophysiological mechanism of schizophrenia.2.The RBANS scales of male patients with chronic schizophrenia are significantly lower than those of healthy controls,which indicated that patients with chronic schizophrenia have significant cognitive impairment.3.The serum levels of β-Endorphin,Oxytocin,Neurotensin and Substance P are correlated with cognitive function in schizophrenia.The lower serum levels of those neuropeptides were,the severer the cognitive impairment was,which indicates that neuropeptide may have a certain protective effect on cognitive function of patients with schizophrenia.