Role of HOMA-IR and IL-6 as screening markers for the metabolic syndrome in patients with chronic schizophrenia: a psychiatric hospital-based cross-sectional study.

This study starts from the metabolic related indexes and cellular inflammatory factors in patients with chronic schizophrenia to find out that it can be used as an effective screening index of metabolic syndrome. 320 patients with chronic schizophrenia (course of disease > 5 years) and 165 healthy subjects were selected. The mental symptoms of the patients were measured by positive and negative syndrome scale. Blood samples from patients and healthy controls were collected to detect blood glucose, triglyceride, HDL and fasting insulin. The serum levels of IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-17, IFN-γ and TNF-α were determined repeatedly by sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The levels of HOMA-IR, plasma inflammatory factors IL-2, IL-6, IL-17 and TNF-α in patient group were higher than those in healthy group. It was found that there were differences in age and related metabolic indexes between patients with chronic schizophrenia with and without metabolic syndrome. In addition, HOMA-IR, plasma cytokines IL-2 and IL-6 still showed differences between groups. In the Spearmen correlation analysis of insulin resistance index, cytokines and metabolic indexes, it was found that there was a significant correlation between HOMA-IR, IL-6 and related metabolic indexes and metabolic syndrome. ROC curve analysis showed that HOMAIR and IL-6 could be used as screening indexes for MS in male and female patients with schizophrenia.Metabolic syndrome is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic schizophrenia. HOMA-IR and IL-6 can be used as effective biological indicators to screen MS in patients with chronic schizophrenia.