Anti-SS-A (Ro) antibody is positively associated with steroid-induced psychiatric events in systemic lupus erythematosus patients

Forty-five systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients who had steroid at a prednisolone dose of 0.8 mg/kg/day or more were retrospectively studied for psychiatric events that developed after the therapy. Simple insomnia was excluded. Their age, sex, dose, and duration of steroid, autoantibodies, and prophylactic heparin use were examined. Seventeen patients (female/male: 16/1, 36.7 +/- A 10.7 years old) developed psychiatric events 18.2 +/- A 10.2 days after steroid start, whereas 28 patients (27/1, 37.9 +/- A 13.1) did not. Anti-SS-A (Ro) antibody was more prevalent in patients with the events (15/17 vs. 14/28, p = 0.009). When heparin was administered concurrently with steroid, psychiatric events developed less frequently either in all of the patients (2/17 vs. 11/28, p = 0.048) or in patients positive for the anti-SS-A antibody (2/15 vs. 7/14, p = 0.041). SLE patients positive for the anti-SS-A (Ro) antibody would much more likely develop psychiatric events after a substantial-dose steroid therapy, and a concurrent prophylactic heparin administration might reduce the risk.