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. 2020 Apr 1;6(1):8.
doi: 10.1038/s41537-020-0098-4.

Inflammatory markers are associated with psychomotor slowing in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls

David R Goldsmith  1 , Nicholas Massa  2   3 , Bradley D Pearce  3 , Evanthia C Wommack  4 , Alaaeddin Alrohaibani  2 , Neha Goel  2 , Bruce Cuthbert  4   2 , Molly Fargotstein  2 , Jennifer C Felger  4 , Ebrahim Haroon  4 , Andrew H Miller  4 , Erica Duncan  4   2
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Free PMC article

Inflammatory markers are associated with psychomotor slowing in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls

David R Goldsmith et al. NPJ Schizophr. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Patients with schizophrenia exhibit psychomotor deficits that are associated with poor functional outcomes. One pathway that may be associated with psychomotor slowing is inflammation. Inflammatory markers have been shown to be elevated in patients with schizophrenia and are associated with psychomotor deficits in both animal and human studies. Forty-three patients with schizophrenia and 29 healthy controls were recruited and underwent a battery of psychomotor tasks. The following immune measures in peripheral blood were assayed: IL-6, IL-1 beta, IL-10, TNF, MCP-1, IL-6sr, IL-1RA, and TNFR2. Generalized linear models were used to determine which immune markers, in addition to their interaction with diagnosis, were associated with performance on the psychomotor tasks. As expected, patients with schizophrenia demonstrated slower performance compared with healthy controls on the finger tapping test (FTT, tested on dominant and non-dominant hands), trail making test (TMT), and symbol coding test (SC). Interactive effects with diagnosis were found for TNF, IL-10, IL-6sr, and TNFR2 for the FTT (dominant), IL-10 and IL-6sr for FTT (non-dominant), TNF and IL-10 for TMT and TNF, IL-10, IL-6sr, TNFR2, and IL-1RA for SC. The results of this study provide evidence that peripheral inflammatory markers contribute to psychomotor slowing in patients with schizophrenia. These data are consistent with a growing literature, demonstrating that inflammation may target the basal ganglia to contribute to psychomotor deficits as is seen in other psychiatric disorders such as depression. These data also indicate that psychomotor speed may be a relevant construct to target in studies of the immune system in schizophrenia.

Conflict of interest statement

Infrastructure support was provided by the Office of Research and Development, the Mental Health Service Lines, and the Center of Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Decatur, GA. Additional infrastructure support was provided by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA. E.D. has received research support for work unrelated to this project from Auspex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Other authors have nothing to disclose. E.D. is a full-time attending psychiatrist in the Mental Health Service Line and N.M. is a full-time employee at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Decatur, GA. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Mean task performance for psychomotor tasks.
Mean performance on the finger tapping task (FTT) dominant, FTT non-dominant, trail making task, and symbol coding tasks for controls (red) and patients with schizophrenia (blue). P ≤ 0.001 for between group comparisons for all tasks.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Actual task performance as predicted by statistical modeling including immune markers, diagnostic group, and covariates (predicted value).
The correlation between the actual and predicted value for a finger tapping task (FTT) dominant was r = 0.666, p < 0.001, for b trail making task was r = 0.722, p < 0.001, for c symbol coding was r = 0.821, p < 0.001, and for d the psychomotor factor was r = 0.773, p < 0.001.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Least square means of predicted values for task performance in patients and controls.
Least square means of the predicted values from the statistical models for the following tasks: finger tapping task (dominant hand and non-dominant hand), trail making task, and symbol coding task. In addition, the least square means of the predicted value from the statistical models for the motor and psychomotor factors from principle component analyses are included.
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