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Objective: Inşammatory mechanisms are reported to play important roles in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Red cell distribution width (RDW) has been studied as a surrogate marker in systemic inşammatory response. Higher RDW levels are suggested to be associated with negative clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus, cardiac failure, pulmonary hypertension, coronary artery disease and stroke. Our goal was to investigate whether RDW was higher in patients with schizophrenia than in healthy subjects, similar in age, sex, and body mass index.
Methods: In this multicenter cross-sectional study, we analyzed 156 non-obese patients with schizophrenia and 89 healthy control subjects for complete blood count. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale was used to determine the severity of clinical pathology.
Results: The mean±standard deviation RDW of patients with schizophrenia was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (14.1±1.5 vs. 13.0±0.7, respectively, p<0.001). RDW correlated positively with severity of pathology (r=0.242; p<0.01) and duration of schizophrenia (r=0.338; p<0.01).
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that RDW levels are increased in physically healthy, non-obese, patients with schizophrenia, when compared with physically and mentally healthy individuals. Moreover, increased levels of RDW are associated with the duration of the disorder and severity of psychotic symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first study that demonstrated the association between RDW and schizophrenia.