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Peripheral brain-derived neurotrophic factor in schizophrenia and the role of antipsychotics: meta-analysis and implications

Version 2 2024-05-30, 15:35
Version 1 2014-11-03, 12:14
journal contribution
posted on 2024-05-30, 15:35 authored by BS Fernandes, J Steiner, Michael BerkMichael Berk, ML Molendijk, A Gonzalez-Pinto, CW Turck, P Nardin, CA Gonçalves
It has been postulated that schizophrenia (SZ) is related to a lower expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In the past few years, an increasing number of divergent clinical studies assessing BDNF in serum and plasma have been published. It is now possible to verify the relationship between BDNF levels and severity of symptoms in SZ as well as the effects of antipsychotic drugs on BDNF using meta-analysis. The aims of this study were to verify if peripheral BDNF is decreased in SZ, whether its levels are correlated with positive and negative symptomatology and if BDNF levels change after antipsychotic treatment. This report consists of two distinct meta-analyses of peripheral BDNF in SZ including a total of 41 studies and more than 7000 participants: (1) peripheral BDNF levels in serum and plasma were moderately reduced in SZ compared with controls. Notably, this decrease was accentuated with the disease duration. However, the extent of peripheral BDNF level decrease did not correlate with the severity of positive and negative symptoms. (2) In plasma, but not serum, peripheral BDNF levels are consistently increased after antipsychotic treatment irrespective of the patient's response to medication. In conclusion, there is compelling evidence that there are decreased levels of peripheral BDNF in SZ, in parallel to previously described reduced cerebral BDNF expression. It remains unclear whether these systemic changes are causally related to the development of SZ or if they are merely a pathologic epiphenomenon.Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication, 30 September 2014; doi:10.1038/mp.2014.117.

History

Journal

Molecular Psychiatry

Volume

20

Pagination

1108-1119

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

1476-5578

eISSN

1476-5578

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article, C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Nature Publishing Group

Issue

9

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group