SERUM LEVELS OF IGF-1 IN FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS AND CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS COMPARED TO HEALTHY CONTROLS

E. Ntouros 1, E. Karanikas 1, P. Ntafoulis 1, N. Sidiropoulos 1, D. Antoniadis 2, D. Kourmpetis 1

1. 424 Military Hospital, Psychiatric Clinic, Thessaloniki, Greece2. Aristotle University, 2nd Psychiatric Department, Thessaloniki, Greece

Introduction-Hypothesis

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is recently thought to play a role in the aetiopathogenesis of psychosis. Till now only 3 studies have investigated serum IGF-1 levels in psychotic patients.

The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that IGF-1 levels are altered at the onset of psychotic disorder and that they tend to deviate in a less profound extent along chronicity.

Methods

We measured serum IGF-1 levels in 28 First Episode Psychosis patients (FEP), 16 patients with a diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia (CHRONIC) and 23 healthy controls (HEALTHY). FEP patients were examined at their first admission and were antipsychotic drug naive. Chronic patients were diagnosed with schizophrenia for at least 5 years and were all under antipsychotic medication. Healthy controls had no previous history of psychiatric disorders or any other known medical condition.

Results Mean IGF-1 concentration was higher in

(FEP) group (288.61 ng/ml) than in (CHRONIC) group (266.66 ng/ml) and (HEALTHY) group (239,03 ng/ml).

There is no statistically significant difference between the different groups H (3)=4.287, p=0.232 with a mean rank of 42.85 for (FEP) group, 39.13 for (HEALTHY) group and 28.78 for (CHRONIC) group.

Conclusions/Discussion

Contrary to the results of only 3 recent studies conducted on the field we found no statistical significant difference between the serum levels of IGF-1 between patients at the onset of psychosis compared to healthy controls or chronic patients. Since our groups consisted of small number of participants and the literature on the field is only minimal further studies are needed.

References: Palomino A, Gonzalez-Pinto A, Martinez M, Ruiz de

Azua S, Alberich S, Mosquera F, Matute C.(2013). Relationship between negative symptoms and plasma levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 in first-episode schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 44: 29-33

Venkatasubramanian G, Chittiprol S, Neelakantachar N, Shetty T, Gangadhar B. (2010). Effect of antipsychotic treatment on Insulin like Growth Factor -1 and cortisol in schizophrenia:a longitudinal study.Schizophr Res. 119:131-137