Chronic peripheral inflammation is associated with impaired functional remission independently of symptomatic remission and depression in schizophrenia.

Abstract Background While symptomatic remission in schizophrenia (SZ) has been defined by consensus and associated with a rank of clinical predictive factors, there is a lack of data of factors associated with functional remission. Objectives To identify clinical and biological factors associated with impaired functional remission in a non-selected chronic stabilized SZ outpatients. Methods This study was a cross-sectional study carried out on all admitted SZ stabilized outpatients in an academic daily care psychiatric hospital. Functional remission was defined by a global assessment of functioning score ≥ 61. Symptomatic remission was defined according to international criteria. Depression was assessed with the Calgary Depression Rating scale for Schizophrenia. Sociodemographic variables, tobacco status, clozapine treatment and obesity were reported. Chronic peripheral inflammation was defined by a highly sensitive C-reactive protein serum level ≥ 3 mg/L and metabolic syndrome according to international recommendations. Results 273 patients were included, among them 48 (18.3%) were classified in the functional remission group. In the multivariate analysis, higher rate of functional remission was associated with symptomatic remission (adjusted Odd ratio = 18.2, p  Conclusion Chronic peripheral inflammation is associated with impaired functional remission in SZ independently of symptomatic remission and depression. Future intervention studies should determine if improving chronic peripheral inflammation may improve SZ patients reaching functional remission.