来自台湾的研究人员已证实了精神分裂症与癫痫症之间的一种双向关联。于近日发表在国际抗癫痫联合会(International League Against Epilepsy, ILAE)期刊Epilepsia上的一篇研究报告称,癫痫病患者患上精神分裂症的可能性要高8倍,而精神分裂症患者患上癫痫症的可能性则要高6倍。
先前的临床研究表明精神病在癫痫病患者中很普遍,精神病研究发现精神分裂症与癫痫症之间存在着密切关联,这表明两种疾病之间存在着由遗传、环境或者神经生物学等原因造成的共同易感性。虽然此前多项研究已经证明在抑郁、情绪障碍和癫痫症之间具有双向关联性,当前的研究则率先调查了精神分裂症与癫痫症之间的这种关联性。
利用台湾“全民健康保险研究资料库(National Health Insurance Research Database)”的数据,该研究团队找出了1999年至2008年间被确诊的5195名精神分裂症患者和11527名癫痫症患者,并将患者群组与年龄-性别匹配对照组进行对比。分析内容包括精神分裂症患者群组中癫痫症的发病率与风险以及癫痫症患者群组中精神分裂症的发病率与风险。
研究发现表明,精神分裂症患者群组中癫痫症的发病率为每1000名患者中有6.99人年,而非精神分裂症对照组则为1.19人年。癫痫症患者群组中精神分裂症的发病率为每1000名患者中有3.53人年,而非癫痫症对照组则为0.46人年。研究人员还报告,男性癫痫病患者的精神分裂症发病率要比女性癫痫症患者稍微高一些。
“我们的研究结果显示了精神分裂症与癫痫症之间存在着很强的双向关联性”,台湾台中市中国医药大学附设医院医学博士兼中国医药大学副教授、本研究第一作者周宜卿(I-Ching Chou)说道。“这种关联性可能是因为这些疾病中存在诸如遗传易感性和环境因素等共同的发病机理,但是还需要对病理学机制进行进一步的调查研究。”(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2011.03268.x
PMC:
PMID:
Bidirectional relation between schizophrenia and epilepsy: A population-based retrospective cohort study
Yu-Tzu Chang, Pei-Chun Chen, I-Ju Tsai, Fung-Chang Sung, Zheng-Nan Chin, Huang-Tsung Kuo, Chang-Hai Tsai, I-Ching Chou
Summary
Purpose: Schizophrenia and epilepsy may share a mutual susceptibility. This study examined the bidirectional relation between the two disorders.
Methods: We used claims data obtained from the Taiwan National Health Insurance database to conduct retrospective cohort analyses. Analysis 1 compared 5,195 patients with incident schizophrenia diagnosed in 1999–2008 with 20,776 controls without the disease randomly selected during the same period, frequency matched with sex and age. Analysis 2 comprised a similar method to compare 11,527 patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy with 46,032 randomly selected sex- and age-matched controls. At the end of 2008, analysis 1 measured the incidence and risk of developing epilepsy and analysis 2 measured the incidence and risk of developing schizophrenia.
Key Findings: In analysis 1, the incidence of epilepsy was higher in the schizophrenia cohort than in the nonschizophrenia cohort (6.99 vs. 1.19 per 1,000 person-years) with an adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 5.88 [95% confidence interval (CI) 4.71–7.36] for schizophrenia patients. In analysis 2, the incidence of schizophrenia was higher in the epilepsy cohort than in the nonepilepsy comparison cohort (3.53 vs. 0.46 per 1,000 person-years) with an aHR of 7.65 (95% CI 6.04–9.69) for epilepsy patients. The effect of schizophrenia on subsequent epilepsy was greater for women, but the association between epilepsy and elevated incidence of schizophrenia was more pronounced in men.
Significance: We found a strong bidirectional relation between schizophrenia and epilepsy. These two conditions may share common causes. Further studies on the mechanism are required.