[The functional activity of the lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective psychosis].

The functional activity of natural killer (NK) and of T-helper (TH) lymphocytes was examined both in 19 patients with schizophrenia and in 6 patients with schizoaffective psychosis as well as in 93 control individuals. The patients were examined both before the treatment and two months after it. The cytotoxic level of NK lymphocytes was considerably decreased in all the patients before the treatment. The TH activity was decreased in 8 of 17 schizophrenic patients and in 1 of 4 schizoaffective patients observed during the acute period. The increase of cytotoxic NK activity was seen in patients with schizoaffective psychosis after the treatment while such alterations in schizophrenic patients were absent. The TH activity changed neither in schizophrenic nor in schizoaffective patients after the treatment.