Albumin and Associated Biomarkers in Severe Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Acute-Phase Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Haiting Xu; Lina Zheng; Leilei Wang; Huanqin Gao; Yanyan Wei; Jingxu Chen

doi:10.2147/NDT.S423399

Albumin and Associated Biomarkers in Severe Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Acute-Phase Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2023 Sep 28:19:2027-2037. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S423399. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Haiting Xu¹, Lina Zheng², Leilei Wang¹, Huanqin Gao¹, Yanyan Wei¹, Jingxu Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Psychology and Psychiatric Department, Beijing Hui-Long-Guan Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
² Psychology and Psychiatric Department, Liaocheng People's Hospital, Liaocheng, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Inflammation is relevant to the pathophysiology of severe neuropsychiatric disorders, schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorders (BD). Multiple pathophysiological biomarkers are valuable for the study of inflammatory processes. This study investigated albumin-related biomarkers in SCZ and BD to explore their roles in disease.

Methods: A total of 5,577 SCZ, 3442 BD-manic (BD-M) and 1405 BD-depression (BD-D) in acute stage and 5000 health controls (HCs) were enrolled. The differences in these biomarker levels among different groups were compared, and the contributing factors for the occurrence of SCZ, BD, and subgroups of BD were analyzed.

Results: Both SCZ and BD exhibit lower prognostic nutritional index (PNI), but higher neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) and creatinine-albumin ratio (CRA) compared with HC. Compared with BD-D, BD-M had higher NPAR and platelet-to-albumin ratio (PAR) and lower CRA. In logistic regression, lower prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and higher CRA were associated with both SCZ and BD, while higher NPAR was associated with BD. In the subgroup of BD, higher NPAR, CRA and lower PNI were associated with BD-M; lower PAR, PNI and higher CRA were associated with BD-D.

Conclusion: Our study reaffirmed the role of inflammation in the pathophysiology of SCZ and BD. Diagnostic value has been demonstrated in NPAR, PAR, PNI and CRA for BD and SCZ.

Keywords: albumin; bipolar disorder; inflammation; neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio; platelet to albumin ratio; prognostic nutritional index; schizophrenia.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Scientific Foundation of Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, No LY202204, Beijing Hospitals Authority Clinical medicine Development of special funding, code XMLX202150; Beijing Municipal Hospital Scientific Research and Cultivation Program, PX2022079, and Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research (2022-4-2134).