Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the levels of peripheric biomarkers that have been associated with blood brain barrier (BBB) damage in healthy controls and two groups of patients with schizophrenia, those who received typical-atypical antipsychotics and those who received only atypical antipsychotics. Additionally, we sought relationships between these biomarkers and schizophrenia symptoms. Methods: This study was conducted with the inclusion of 41 healthy volunteers and 75 patients with schizophrenia. The biomarkers measured to evaluate BBB injury were as follows: spectrin breakdown product 145 (SBDP145), spectrin breakdown product 150 (SBDP150), ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1), ubiquitin ligase cullin-3 (cullin), occludin and claudin, which were measured via ELISA. Symptoms of patients with schizophrenia were evaluated with the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS), Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms, the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI), and the general assessment of functionality (GAF). Results: Compared to controls, SBDP145 (p = 0.022) and cullin (p = 0.046) levels were significantly higher in patients with schizophrenia receiving atypical antipsychotic treatment. SBDP150 levels were lower in the combination treatment group compared to the control group (p = 0.022). Claudin (p = 0.804), occludin (p = 0.058) and UCHL1 (p = 0.715) levels were similar among groups. In recipients of combination treatment, SBDP145 levels were found to be positively correlated with SAPS-total (r = 0.440, p = 0.036) and SAPS-delusions (r = 0.494, p = 0.017) scores. Conclusion:The relationships demonstrated in this study indicate that more comprehensive research is needed to understand whether BBB defects contribute to clinical characteristics in patients with schizophrenia.

Self stigmatization, which occurs as a result of internalization of public stigma in severe mental illnesses, is a factor that impairs the mental well-being of individuals and their compliance with treatment. Data on exactly which factors are associated with internalized stigma are still insufficient. Our aim in this clinical study is to investigate the relationship between internalized stigma and religious coping in patients with schizophrenia. Sociodemographic Data Form, Religious Coping Scale, internalized stigma of mental illness (ISMI) Scale were applied to 147 schizophrenic patients who were followed up by the community mental health center and met the inclusion criteria. The results were analyzed with IBM SPSS 22 package program. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Pearson Chi-Square, Fisher Exact test, Spearman correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were applied. There was a negative correlation between positive and negative religious coping in patients with schizophrenia (r: −0.467, P < .001); a positive correlation between negative religious coping and social withdrawal (r: 0.711, P < .001) and perceived discrimination (r: 0.706, P < .001); negative correlation between positive religious coping and social withdrawal (r: −0.343, P < .001) and perceived discrimination (r: −0.302, P < .001). There was no significant relationship between other subdimensions of ISMI and religious coping scale. There was a significant negative correlation between ISMI total score and positive religious coping (r: −0.256, P: .002), a significant positive correlation with negative religious coping (r: 0.683, P < .001). Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to reveal the explanatory effect of age, duration of illness and religious coping on internalized stigma, and according to the model obtained (R = 0.729, R2 = 0.516, F = 32.071, P < .001), 51.6% of the change in the total score of the ISMI can be explained by this model. The significant relationship between positive and negative religious coping and internalized stigma in patients included in the study suggests that it may be beneficial to consider religious coping attitudes in addition to other interventions in the fight against stigma in severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the effect of perceived parental attitudes on the symptoms of these diseases in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) and to compare the perceived parental attitudes between these two disorders. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2020 and August 2021 at a university hospital in Turkey. Fifty-two patients with BD and 50 patients with schizophrenia in remission, aged 16-50 years, who met the respective diagnostic criteria defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-5 were included in the study. Results: The mean age of patients with BD was 38.90 ±1 0.95 years, while it was 39.08 ± 11.51 years for those with schizophrenia. Females comprised 65.38% (n = 34) of the BD group and 78.00% (n = 39) of the schizophrenia group. Our results showed that the severity of various negative schizophrenia symptoms increased with higher levels of perceived parental libertarian attitude. In addition, the severity of delusion, which is one of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, was found to increase with lower perceived parental interest. We did not find a significant relationship between the severity of mania and depression symptoms and perceived parental attitudes. Conclusions: In addition to supporting previously reported relationships of various factors and schizophrenia and BD, our results suggest that the increase in the level of liberality of parents has a negative impact on the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. In addition, the decrease in the level of interest of parents towards their children exacerbates delusion symptoms.