RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Patients with antipsychotic-naïve first-episode (ANFE) schizophrenia (SZ) can help clarify many confounding factors in determining sex differences in antipsychotic drug induced weight gain and its association with symptom improvement. METHODS: This 8-week longitudinal trial of ANFE patients with SZ enrolled 526 patients and 313 healthy controls. We evaluated bodyweight and the efficacy of antipsychotics on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline and at the end of week 8. RESULTS: Males and females after treatment showed no sex difference in weight gain, BMI increase, and percentage of weight gain. However, at baseline, male patients had more positive symptoms than female patients, and decreases in positive symptoms, general psychopathology, and total PANSS scores were less in male than female patients. Adjusting for confounding factors using multiple linear regression confirmed that weight gain was significantly associated with these decreases in PANSS symptoms only in men not women. CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between weight gain and symptom reduction after 8 weeks of antipsychotic treatment exists only in male patients with ANFE SZ and not in female patients.
Asunto(s)
Antipsicóticos , Esquizofrenia , Antipsicóticos/efectos adversos , Femenino , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Estudios Prospectivos , Esquizofrenia/tratamiento farmacológico , Aumento de PesoRESUMEN
The etiology of schizophrenia is still unknown, and the MTHFR gene has been shown to be associated with SCZ. Previous studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia exhibit sex differences in symptoms and cognitive function. However, no study has been conducted to investigate the sex difference in the association between C677T polymorphism and symptoms and cognitive impairment in Chinese patients with schizophrenia. The C677T polymorphism was genotyped in 957 patients with schizophrenia and 576 controls. Patients were also rated on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). The results showed that there were significant differences in MTHFR C677T genotype and allele distributions between male patients and male controls (both p<0.05), while there was no significant difference between female patients and female controls (both p>0.05). Further analysis showed that there were significant sex differences in the association between C677T genotype and negative symptoms, immediate memory or attention index score in schizophrenia (p<0.05). This study suggests that the complex interactive effect between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and sex plays an important role in some clinical characteristics of patients with schizophrenia.