Obesity, altered oxidative stress, and clinical correlates in chronic schizophrenia patients

Antipsychotic pharmacotherapy is strongly obesogenic and is associated with increased oxidative stress in patients with schizophrenia. However, whether these changes reflect psychopathology, antipsychotic efficacy, or some other factor is not known. Our study aims to investigate the degree of oxidative stress in different BMI categories and to identify clinical symptomatology that may be paired with increased oxidative stress in a schizophrenia population. To this end, we performed a cross-sectional study and recruited 89 long-term inpatients with schizophrenia and collected the following variables: plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPx), routine biochemical analysis, and psychopathology through the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The results indicate that the levels of the lipid peroxidation product, MDA, were significantly higher in the high BMI group than the low (normal) BMI group. As expected, high BMI was associated with an atherogenic lipid profile; however, it was also associated with fewer psychopathological symptoms. Multiple regression analysis found that MDA levels, the PANSS general psychopathology subscore, and triglyceride levels (all p < 0.05) were independent contributors to the BMI in patients. These results suggested that oxidative stress may play an important role in antipsychotic-induced weight gain. Further investigations using the longitudinal design in first-episode schizophrenia patients are needed to explore the beneficial effect of antioxidants on the abnormal lipid metabolism mediated by antipsychotic treatment.