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The plasma levels of interleukin-12 in schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar mania: effects of psychotropic drugs

Molecular Psychiatry volume 7, pages 1107–1114 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Interleukin-12 (IL-12) plays a key role in promoting T helper 1 (Th1) responses and subsequent cell-mediated immunity. Given the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders, the dysregulation of IL-12 in these illnesses would be expected. We measured the plasma levels of IL-12 in 102 psychiatric patients (43 schizophrenia, 34 major depression and 25 bipolar disorder) and 85 normal controls. In addition, IL-12 levels of the patients were measured after an 8-week treatment to assess whether the levels were affected by medication. The IL-12 levels of the patient group with major depression were significantly higher than that of the control group, whereas no differences were found among the other groups. IL-12 values of the three patient groups decreased significantly after 8 weeks of treatment. These findings support the hypothesis that activation of the inflammatory response system and in particular of Th-1-like cells, is involved in the pathophysiology of major depression and that repeated administration of antidepressive and antipsychotic drugs may suppress IL-12 plasma concentrations in psychiatric patients.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Hae-Hiang Song in the Department of Biostatistics, Catholic Medical College for her assistance in data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Korea University Ansan Hospital, College of Medicine, Korea

    Y-K Kim, H Kim & C-S Han

  2. Clinical Pathology, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Korea

    I-B Suh & C-S Lim

  3. Yong-In Mental Hospital, Kusungmyun, YongIn-Kun, Kyunggi-Do, Korea

    S-H Choi

  4. UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Brain Research Institute, CA, USA

    J Licinio

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  1. Y-K Kim
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Correspondence to H Kim.

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Kim, YK., Suh, IB., Kim, H. et al. The plasma levels of interleukin-12 in schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar mania: effects of psychotropic drugs. Mol Psychiatry 7, 1107–1114 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001084

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