Smoke, GPx activity and symptoms improvement in patients with drug-naive first-episode schizophrenia: A large-scale 12-week follow-up study

The relationship between tobacco smoke and schizophrenia (SZ) is well established. Smoking is hypothesized to alleviate symptoms and reduce the adverse effects of antipsychotic medications in patients with SZ. However, the underlying biological mechanisms by which smoke improves symptoms in SZ remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of smoking on clinical symptoms and antioxidant enzyme activity after ris-peridone treatment in a 12-week prospective cohort study of drug-naive first-episode (DNFE) SZ patients. Two hundred and fifteen DNFE patients were recruited and received 12 weeks of risperidone monotherapy. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to assess the severity of patient's symptoms at baseline and post-treatment. Plasma GPx activity was also measured at baseline and at the end of 12 weeks. Smokers showed greater improvement in negative symptoms relative to nonsmokers with DNFE SZ. In addition, repeated ANCOVA analysis showed no significant interaction of time and group on GPx activity. Improvement in negative symptoms was not associated with changes in GPx activity. However, in nonsmokers, increased GPx activity was correlated with improvement in positive symptoms.