Psoriasis and schizophrenia

[Fred]

This study looked at the risk of Schizophrenia patients getting Psoriasis.

Quote:

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Background:
Schizophrenia is a complex disease proceeds from an interaction between genetic background and environmental factors. Recent studies showed T helper 17 (Th17) signaling, which is the main downstream immune response of psoriasis, is activated in schizophrenia.

Objective:
To investigate if patients with schizophrenia have higher risk of psoriasis.

Methods:
In this nationwide retrospective cohort study, we analyzed the 1-million-enroll cohort from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Psoriasis and schizophrenia were ascertained by International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, Clinical Modification coding. The study cohort was comprised of enrollees diagnosed with schizophrenia during the period from January 1, 1996 through December 31, 2010, while the comparison population consisted of enrollees who had not been diagnosed with schizophrenia during the study period. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for the risk of psoriasis associated with schizophrenia using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Results:
The adjusted HR of psoriasis associated with schizophrenia was 2.32(95% CI = 1.81-2.98). After 15 years, the cumulative incidence of psoriasis in patients with schizophrenia and comparison population was 2.82% and 1.17%, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier curves for the cumulative incidence of psoriasis in individuals with and without schizophrenia differed significantly(P<0.0001, log-rank test).

Conclusions:
Patients with schizophrenia have higher risk of psoriasis, which may be due to common genetic susceptibilities and/or immunologic mechanisms in both diseases. Th17 signaling and pro-inflammatory cytokines may act as a link between these two diseases and are potential therapeutic targets for schizophrenia.

Source: NO LINKS ALLOWED

*Early view funding unknown.

[jiml]

An interesting study, it's not a high percentage difference, but I wonder  could it also be the stress of schizophrenia triggering the disease ?

[Caroline]

An interesting study, it's not a high percentage difference, but I wonder  could it also be the stress of schizophrenia triggering the disease ?

Well Jim, if schizophrenia and the Th-17 is activated in that disease, then it is not necessary to have stress. Th-17 and it's accompanied interleukine IL-17, are very strong factors in Psoriasis. Though, thinking about that, could it be the other way around, could stress cause the derailing of Th-17 and thus schizophrenia?
I have recently interviewed a researcher of the the university hospital in Rotterdam. The subject was vitamine D and its role in immune responses. I will try to make a "shortened" translation of that interview. But the interesting thing was that he has (tried to) explain me how the relation is between the auto-immunity triggers and IL-17, IL-23 and Th-1 . It was very interesting, I learnt a lot, and he was very eager to tell all kinds of things of his work. Quite a long interview.


The other, bit scary , point is that if Th-17 is active in schizophrenia and psoriasis, is that it explains the high number of lunatics in the Off-Topic section of the forum..