Disruption of Myofibrils in the Skeletal Muscle of Psychotic Patients

Abstract

PREVIOUS studies from this laboratory^1-3have demonstrated that an elevation of serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK, EC 2.7.3.2), of the muscle isozymic type, is found in approximately 60% of acutely psychotic patients at the onset of the acute psychotic episode. Evidence obtained by histochemical techniques⁴revealed an abnormality of skeletal muscle in 44 of 64 acutely psychotic subjects. The histochemical pattern in these abnormal rasults of muscle biopsies was suggestive of a myopathic disorder.⁴In this report, light and electron microscopic evidence is presented to indicate that substantial disruptive changes of the myofibrils occur in almost 40% of these psychotic patients, and these focal myofibrillar changes are compatible with a degenerative alteration of the muscle cell. Methods Subjects.— Skeletal muscle was obtained from a total of 83 human subjects. Ten of these subjects were normal controls; they had normal serum CPK activities, had no personal or family history