Adequate antipsychotic treatment normalizes serum nerve growth factor concentrations in schizophrenia with and without cannabis or additional substance abuse

Neurotrophins such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are important for the development and maintenance of neuron function. Neurodevelopment is thought to be impaired in schizophrenia, and vulnerable schizophrenic brains may be more sensitive to toxic influences. Thus, cannabis as a neurotoxin (and other substances) may be more harmful to schizophrenic brains than to non-schizophrenic brains, when used chronically. In a previous study we demonstrated an earlier disease onset and significantly higher serum NGF concentrations in drug-naïve schizophrenic patients with previous long-term cannabis abuse than in schizophrenics without cannabis abuse or cannabis abusers without schizophrenia. We therefore investigated whether this difference is still observed after treatment. Serum NGF measured in 114 treated schizophrenic patients (schizophrenia alone, n = 66; schizophrenia plus cannabis abuse, n = 42; schizophrenia plus multiple substance abuse, n = 6) no longer differed significantly among those groups and from the control groups (healthy controls, n = 51; cannabis controls, n = 24; multiple substance controls, n = 6). These results were confirmed by an additional prospective study in 28 patients suffering from schizophrenia (S) or schizophrenia with cannabis abuse (SC). Previously elevated serum NGF levels in the drug-naïve state, also differing between the groups (S: 83.44 ± 265.25 pg/ml; SC: 246.89 ± 310.24 pg/ml, S versus SC: p = 0.03) dropped to 10.72 ± 14.13 pg/ml (S) and 34.19 ± 38.96 pg/ml (SC) (S versus SC, p > 0.05), respectively, after adequate antipsychotic treatment. We thus conclude that antipsychotic treatment leads to recovery of neural integrity, as indicated by renormalized NGF values.