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Thomas Pollmächer, MD; Dunja Hinze-Selch, MD; Janet Mullington, PhD; Thomas Fenzel, MD; Florian Holsboer, PhD
Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry Clinical Institute Kraepelinstrasse 10 Munich D-80804 Germany

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1997;54(1):89.

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Ganguli and colleagues,¹ in the August 1995 issue of the ARCHIVES, provide convincing evidence that phytohemagglutinin-induced in vitro interleukin-2 (IL-2) production is reduced in patients with schizophrenia who have never received medication compared with healthy control subjects. They note that decreased IL-2 secretion and increased systemic levels of soluble IL-2 receptors (sIL-2Rs) are robust findings that signify an alteration of immunologic functions in patients with schizophrenia. Documentation of altered IL-2 secretion in drug-naive patients is important because antipsychotic medication can influence the IL-2/IL-2 receptor system as demonstrated by clozapine-induced increases in plasma sIL-2R levels.²

In addition to antipsychotic medication, smoking may affect the immune system of patients with schizophrenia. In healthy smokers, phytohemagglutinininduced lymphocyte proliferation was shown to be suppressed,³ and systemic sIL-2R levels were reported to be increased.^4,5 The prevalence of smoking is high in patients with schizophrenia,⁶ but neither the study by Ganguli . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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