AUTHOR=Yin Xu Yuan , Cai Yuan , Zhu Zhen Hua , Zhai Chang Ping , Li Jian , Ji Cai Fang , Chen Peng , Wang Jing , Wu Yi Ming , Chan Raymond C. K. , Jia Qiu Fang , Hui Li 

TITLE=Associations of decreased serum total protein, albumin, and globulin with depressive severity of schizophrenia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.957671

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.957671

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>Depression and schizophrenia (SCH) were accompanied by an acute phase response (APR) that was implicated in the alterations in total protein (TP), albumin, and globulin levels. The aims of this study are to examine serum TP, albumin, globulin levels, depressive symptoms, and their associations in patients with SCH.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We recruited 34 patients with SCH and 136 healthy controls (HCs) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Psychiatric symptoms and biomarkers were assessed using the Chinese version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) as well as the bromocresol green and biuret methods.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Serum TP (<italic>F</italic> = 46.11, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, η2 = 0.19), albumin (<italic>F</italic> = 31.69, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, η2 = 0.14), and globulin (<italic>F</italic> = 12.48, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.001, η2 = 0.06) levels were lower in patients than those in HCs after adjusting for covariates. Serum TP (<italic>r</italic> = −0.37, <italic>p</italic> = 0.03) and albumin (<italic>r</italic> = −0.37, <italic>p</italic> = 0.03) levels were negatively correlated with depressive score in patients. Stepwise multivariate regression analysis showed the negative associations of depressive score with serum TP (β = −0.13, <italic>t</italic> = −2.92, <italic>p</italic> = 0.007), albumin (β = −0.23, <italic>t</italic> = −2.36, <italic>p</italic> = 0.03), and globulin (β = −0.16, <italic>t</italic> = −2.40, <italic>p</italic> = 0.02) levels in patients. Serum TP, albumin, and globulin levels exhibited the accuracies of 87.1, 70.0, and 69.4% in discriminating between patients and HCs (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.78, 0.68, and 0.77; sensitivity/specificity: 52.9%/95.6%, 55.9%/73.5%, and 76.5%/67.6%).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Our data suggested that decreased serum TP, albumin, and globulin should be regarded as the SCH risk factors and were implicated in the depressive severity of SCH, which further provided the support for the hypothesis that SCH and depression were accompanied by the abnormal inflammatory cytokines with the APR.</p></sec>