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Short-chain fatty acids in schizophrenia: are they affected by a depressive state?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 August 2024
Abstract
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Introduction
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are bacterial metabolites that, within microbiome-gut-brain axis, make a promising research line on etiopathology of mental diseases like schizophrenia (SZ) and major depression disorder. Besides, depressive symptoms are frequent clinical features of SZ.
Objectives
- Describe fecal SCFA concentrations in SZ patients.
- Analyze differences in SCFA depending on:
- Depression.
- Clinical severity, antipsychotics and antidepressants, comorbidities (pro-inflammatory state/obesity/metabolic syndrome [MetS]), lifestyle.
Methods
Cross-sectional study of 67 outpatients [mean age=43.52±12.42, range=22-67; males=40 (59.7%)] with diagnosis (DSM-5) of SZ recruited from their mental health clinics in Oviedo (Spain).
- Assessment:
- Fecal SCFA (gas chromatography;μg/mL).
- Plasmatic C-reactive protein (CPR;mg/dL).
- PANSS, Calgary Depression (CDS), International Physical Activity (IPAQ), Mediterranean Diet Adherence (MEDAS).
- Toxic habits (alcohol use/smoking/cannabis).
- Chlorpromazine equivalent doses (CPZ-ED), use of antidepressants.
- MetS (ATP-III), body mass index (BMI; kg/cm2).
- Statistics: Spearman correlation, U Mann-Whitney, ANCOVA.
Results
14 patients showed clinical depression (CDS≥5). There were no differences in age or sex between groups. 36 patients (53.7%) showed systemic low-grade inflammation (CPR≥0.3mg/dL) and 32 (30.8%) MetS.Table 1 shows fecal SCFA levels by depressive state. Means (SD) are ahown.Table 1
| CDS≤4 | CDS≥5 | Total | U Mann-Whitney(p-value) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acetate | 21.449(12.823) | 12.911(7.189) | 19.665(12.328) | 221.000(0.021) |
| Propanoate | 9.170(6.819) | 6.848(6.036) | 8.685(6.687) | 268.500(0.114) |
| Butyrate | 8.529(6.436) | 7.875(8.232) | 8.392(6.787) | 320.000(0.432) |
| Total SCFA | 39.148(23.770) | 31.415(24.526) | 36.742(23.549) | 250.000(0.062) |
Correlations were found in Age with Butyrate (r=-0.248,p=0.043) and weekly alcohol units with Propanoate (r=0.250,p=0.041) plus trend to significance with Butyrate (r=0.232,p=0.059). It also showed a trend towards statistical relation for CPZ-ED with Propanoate (r=-0.253,p=0.039) and Total SCFA (r=-0.253,p=0.039). We found no correlation in SCFA with MetS, CGI, PANSS-N, BMI, IPAQ, MEDAS and other toxic habits.
ANCOVA was performed to Acetate and Total SCFA using depression state as independent variable and Age and CPZ-ED as covariates. There was a trend towards statistical significance for Acetate (F=3.937,p=0.052,η2=0.059) whereas Total SCFA showed no difference (F=1.350,p=2.250,η2=0.021).
Conclusions
There seems to be lower levels of fecal Acetate in SZ patients with depressive symptoms, considering age and antipsychotic intake. In our sample there was no relation between SFCA and clinical severity, lifestyle, comorbidities or antidepressant use.
Disclosure of Interest
None Declared
- Type
- Abstract
- Information
- European Psychiatry , Volume 67 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 32nd European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2024 , pp. S765 - S766
- Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
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