Inflammation, substance use, psychopathology, and cognition in phase 1 of the clinical antipsychotic trials of intervention effectiveness study

• Published in: Schizophrenia research 2018-05, Vol.195, p.275-282
• Main Authors: Miller, Brian J., Buckley, Peter F., McEvoy, Joseph P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cocaine; Cognition; Inflammation; Marijuana; Psychopathology; Schizophrenia
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2017.08.027

Schizophrenia has been associated with aberrant blood levels of inflammatory markers. However, patients with comorbid illicit drug use have been inadequately studied with respect to immune function. Furthermore, associations between inflammatory markers, psychopathology, and cognition have been inconsistently considered. We investigated relationships between inflammatory markers, comorbid marijuana and cocaine use, and psychopathology and cognition in patients with schizophrenia. For subjects with available fasting data from the baseline visit of the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) schizophrenia trial, inflammatory markers were investigated as predictors of psychopathology and cognition in patients with and without comorbid marijuana or cocaine use, using linear regression models controlling for potential confounding factors. Compared to subjects with a negative urine drug screen (UDS), marijuana use was a predictor of higher lymphocytes and E-selectin, and lower leptin (p≤0.04 for each); cocaine use was a predictor of higher adiponectin (p=0.04). In subjects with marijuana use, lower WBC and higher IL-6 were predictors of higher PANSS total score (p