BACKGROUND The clinical debut of schizophrenia is frequently a first episode of psychosis (FEP). As such, there is considerable interest in identifying associations between biological markers and clinical or cognitive characteristics that help predict the progression and outcome of FEP patients. Previous studies showed that high prolactin, low oxytocin, and high homocysteine are factors associated with FEP 6 months after diagnosis, at which point plasma levels were correlated with some clinical and cognitive characteristics. METHODS We reexamined 75 patients at 12 months after diagnosis to measure the evolution of these molecules and assess their association with clinical features. RESULTS At follow-up, FEP patients had lower prolactin levels than at baseline, and patients treated with risperidone or paliperidone had higher prolactin levels than patients who received other antipsychotic agents. By contrast, no changes in oxytocin and homocysteine plasma levels were observed between the baseline and follow-up. In terms of clinical features, we found that plasma prolactin and homocysteine levels were correlated with the severity of the psychotic symptoms in male FEP patients, suggesting that they might be factors associated with psychotic symptomatology but only in men. Together with oxytocin, these molecules may also be related to sustained attention, verbal ability, and working memory cognitive domains in FEP patients. CONCLUSION This study suggests that focusing on prolactin, oxytocin, and homocysteine at a FEP may help select adequate pharmacological treatments and develop new tools to improve the outcome of these patients, where sex should also be borne in mind.

中文翻译：

---

一年随访中催乳素、催产素和同型半胱氨酸与首次精神病发作的临床和认知特征之间的关系。

背景精神分裂症的临床首次亮相通常是精神病的首次发作（FEP）。因此，人们对确定生物标志物与临床或认知特征之间的关联非常感兴趣，以帮助预测 FEP 患者的进展和结果。先前的研究表明，高催乳素、低催产素和高同型半胱氨酸是诊断后 6 个月与 FEP 相关的因素，此时血浆水平与一些临床和认知特征相关。方法 我们在诊断后 12 个月时重新检查了 75 名患者，以测量这些分子的演变并评估它们与临床特征的关联。结果 随访时，FEP 患者的催乳素水平低于基线，而接受利培酮或帕潘立酮治疗的患者的催乳素水平高于接受其他抗精神病药物的患者。相比之下，在基线和随访期间没有观察到催产素和同型半胱氨酸血浆水平的变化。在临床特征方面，我们发现血浆催乳素和同型半胱氨酸水平与男性 FEP 患者精神病症状的严重程度相关，表明它们可能是与精神病症状相关的因素，但仅限于男性。与催产素一起，这些分子也可能与 FEP 患者的持续注意力、言语能力和工作记忆认知领域有关。结论 这项研究表明，在 FEP 时关注催乳素、催产素和同型半胱氨酸可能有助于选择适当的药物治疗并开发新工具来改善这些患者的预后，其中也应考虑到性别。