Department of Psychiatry, Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University (Guangzhou Huiai Hospital), Guangzhou, 510000, China.
Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Translational Medicine of Mental Disorders, Guangzhou, 510000, China.
BMC Psychiatry. 2021 Dec 4;21(1):606. doi: 10.1186/s12888-021-03604-5.
Despite inconsistent findings, accumulative evidence has shown abnormalities of the key antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase (SOD), in patients with schizophrenia. However, few studies explored SOD in late-life schizophrenia (LLS). Our work aimed to investigate changes in SOD activity and the relationship between SOD activity and psychotic symptoms or cognitive deficits in LLS.
32 geriatric male patients with schizophrenia (age ≥ 60) and 28 age-matched male normal controls were recruited in the study. We assessed cognitive functions with the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), evaluated the severity of clinical symptoms with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and measured the plasma levels of SOD.
Patients with LLS presented with higher total levels of SOD compared to the controls (81.70 vs. 65.26 U/ml, p < .001). Except for the visuospatial index, the cognitive performance was significantly worse on RBANS total and other domain scores in the schizophrenia group than the control group. In the schizophrenia group, SOD levels were positively correlated with subscores of general psychopathology and negative symptoms and total scores of the PANSS (all p < .05), and inversely associated with performance in immediate memory, language, and RBANS total scores (all p < .05).
Our findings suggest that patients with LLS display disturbances in the antioxidant system, which may underlie the pathological process of cognitive impairments and negative symptoms in the late stage of schizophrenia. Supplementing with antioxidants could be a potential treatment.
尽管研究结果不一致，但越来越多的证据表明，精神分裂症患者关键抗氧化酶超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）存在异常。然而，很少有研究探讨老年期精神分裂症（LLS）中的 SOD。我们的工作旨在研究 SOD 活性的变化，以及 SOD 活性与 LLS 患者的精神病症状或认知缺陷之间的关系。
本研究纳入了 32 名老年男性精神分裂症患者（年龄≥60 岁）和 28 名年龄匹配的正常男性对照。我们使用重复认知评估系统（RBANS）评估认知功能，使用阳性和阴性症状量表（PANSS）评估临床症状严重程度，并测量 SOD 的血浆水平。
与对照组相比，LLS 患者的总 SOD 水平更高（81.70 比 65.26 U/ml，p<0.001）。除了视觉空间指数外，精神分裂症组在 RBANS 总分和其他领域的认知表现明显差于对照组。在精神分裂症组中，SOD 水平与一般精神病学和阴性症状的亚评分以及 PANSS 的总分呈正相关（均 p<0.05），与即时记忆、语言和 RBANS 总分的表现呈负相关（均 p<0.05）。
我们的研究结果表明，LLS 患者的抗氧化系统存在紊乱，这可能是精神分裂症晚期认知损伤和阴性症状的病理过程的基础。补充抗氧化剂可能是一种潜在的治疗方法。
