Immunity and Schizophrenia

Abstract

A group of 22 male schizophrenic patients and a group of 17 healthy male control subjects were hyperimumunized with pertussis vaccine. A statistically significant difference (p = .003) exists between the abilities of these 2 groups to develop high serum antibody titers. Internal examination of the patient series reveals that duration of hospitalization and blood N level may in some way be related to this difference. In the patient series there is a slight negative correlation between antibody titer and duration of hospitalization (r = -.34), and a positive correlation between antibody titer and total serum N (r = +0.45). There is a higher and more significant negative correlation between duration of hospitalization and total serum N (r = -0.58). This suggests a faulty protein metabolism in this group of patients, which may have in part an exogenous nutritional origin. However, there may be relative defects in protein-synthesizing mechanisms which may in some way be related to the general "sluggishness" of the hormonal and metabolic mechanisms commonly found in schizophrenic patients.