Association of serum Brain derived Neurotrophic Factor with psychopathology in First Episode Psychosis and its alteration with antipsychotics: A prospective study

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia being biologically driven and neurodevelopmental in origin is widely accepted now. Role of neurotrophins in the pathogenesis of Schizophrenia has been a topic of recent research and BDNF is one of the most commonly studied neurotrophins. The present study attempts to analyze the association of serum BDNF levels with psychopathology in patients of first episode psychosis and the alteration of the levels with antipsychotics. AIM AND OBJECTIVES: To study the association, if any, of serum BDNF levels with psychopathology in patients with First episode psychosis and alteration of serum BDNF with antipsychotics. METHODOLOGY: This prospective study has been conducted at LGB Regional Institute of Mental Health, Assam over a duration of one and a half years. By purposive sampling, 40 patients of first episode psychosis and 40 healthy controls were recruited after fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria. Informed consent was obtained, socio-demographic details were taken; and controls were screened for the presence of any psychiatric disorders using MINI 6.0.0. Positive and negative symptom domains were assessed by PANSS and serum BDNF levels were measured at baseline and 8 weeks, and differences of serum BDNF levels between cases and controls were studied and then correlation between serum BDNF levels and psychopathology was analyzed. RESULTS: Serum BDNF levels of patients of first episode psychosis were significantly lower than that of healthy controls and levels increased significantly with treatment over 8 weeks. The positive symptoms significantly correlated with the serum BDNF levels however the negative symptoms did not. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates patients of first episode psychosis to have significantly lower BDNF levels than the healthy population and correlation of positive symptoms with serum BDNF levels.