Egyptian Journal of Psychiatry

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year
: 2022  |  Volume : 43  |  Issue : 2  |  Page : 87--93

CRP and its relation to cognitive performance in schizophrenia patients: a cross-sectional study


Sanaa Ahmed Kamal1, Sarah Adel Abdel-Monem El-Samahy1, Walaa Abdelfattah2, Ola Osama Khalaf1 
1 Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt
2 Clinical and Chemical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Correspondence Address:
Ola Osama Khalaf
Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Postal Code 11562
Egypt

Background Schizophrenia (SZ) is one of the most severe and chronic forms of mental illness. It involves cognition, emotion, perception, and behavior. There is an obvious role of neuroinflammation and immunogenetics in SZ. There is a relation between the severity of cognitive deficits and enhanced levels of inflammatory markers in schizophrenic patients, including C-reactive protein (CRP). Also, a relation between CRP and the negative-symptom subscale of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was observed. Aims To study the relation between CRP level with different cognitive domains in patients with SZ and its relation to the psychopathology of SZ. Methods A cross-sectional study was applied on 40 SZ patients and 40 healthy controls, serum CRP was measured, and they were cognitively assessed using Arabic version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment Basic (MoCA-B). Results SZ patients showed worse cognitive performance on all subtests (except orientation), MOCA-B, and the total score when compared with normal controls. A negative correlation between executive functions, calculation, abstraction, memory, naming, and attention subtests of MoCA-B and its total score with the serum CRP was found. A positive correlation between CRP and the negative subscale and total score of PANSS was found. Conclusions Serum CRP level was elevated in patients with SZ when compared with healthy controls and significantly negatively correlated with cognitive functions, and positively correlated with negative symptoms in SZ patients, which seconds the neuroinflammatory etiology of SZ.


How to cite this article:
Kamal SA, El-Samahy SA, Abdelfattah W, Khalaf OO. CRP and its relation to cognitive performance in schizophrenia patients: a cross-sectional study.Egypt J Psychiatr 2022;43:87-93


How to cite this URL:
Kamal SA, El-Samahy SA, Abdelfattah W, Khalaf OO. CRP and its relation to cognitive performance in schizophrenia patients: a cross-sectional study. Egypt J Psychiatr [serial online] 2022 [cited 2024 Mar 29 ];43:87-93
Available from: https://new.ejpsy.eg.net//article.asp?issn=1110-1105;year=2022;volume=43;issue=2;spage=87;epage=93;aulast=Kamal;type=0