Relationship between red blood cell distribution width and schizophrenia

INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disease. The present study is a comparison of red blood cell distribution width (RDW) values in schizophrenia patients with those of a control group performed to examine the effect of inflammation on the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted in the laboratory of the Mental Health Hospital and included data collected between January 2013 and December 2014. All patients who were diagnosed with schizophrenia were included in the study. RDW was examined using a Mindray BC 3000 Plus instrument (Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co. Ltd., Shenzen, China) using the electrical impedance method. Statistical analyses were conducted using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Student’s t-test, the Mann-Whitney U-test, chi-square analysis, or Fisher’s exact test.
RESULTS: The red cell distribution width standard deviation value was statistically significantly higher in the schizophrenia group than in the control group (48.43±5.14 fL and 43.75±4.66 fL; p<0.001). Similarly, patients with schizophrenia displayed elevated red cell distribution width coefficient of variation compared with the controls (14.14%±1.16% and 13.71%±1.39%; p<0.001).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: TRDW, a frequently assessed hematological parameter, may be a useful diagnostic and prognostic marker of schizophrenia, with potential utility in risk estimation and treatment monitoring.