Neuroleptics and cytochine production in schizophrenic patients.

The study of cytokine production represents a mean for exploring the immune function, because of their crucial involvement in the immune response. In schizophrenia, the literature reports contradictory results about "in vivo" and "in vitro" IL-2, sIL-2R and TNF production, in medicated and untreated schizophrenics. However, methodological concerns, regardinf sample size, control group composition, immune variables, assay technique, experimental deisgn and data analysis, limit the interpretation and generalization of these data. In our study we assessed the production of IL-2, sIL2R, TNF and IL-6 in a group of schizophrenic patients.