Ritu Meena, Deepa Meena, Tushar Jagawat, Gargi Kukareja, Preet Kamal, Pushpendra Bairwa
Introduction: Schizophrenia (SCZ) and Bipolar Affective Disorder (BPAD) are psychiatric disorders affecting an estimated 1-2% of the population worldwide. Inflammatory reactions such as cytokine cascades, cellular immune responses and increased levels of acute phase proteins and complement factors are associated with many psychiatric disorders, including SCZ and BPAD. Aim: To compare peripheral inflammatory indices in patients with SCZ and BPAD. Materials and Methods: This hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted during the period of October 2023 to August 2024 at the Department of Psychiatry, Balvir Singh Tomar Institute of Medical Science, Research and Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India which included 162 participants comprising 72 patients with BPAD, 90 patients with SCZ, aged 18-60 years. A semi-structured proforma was used to assess clinical characteristics. Blood samples were collected for various haematological and serum osmolality parameters. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05. Results: All groups were matched for gender, age, caste, religion and residence. The majority of patients were married. There was no significant difference in neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Platelet-toLymphocyte Ratio (PLR), Haemoglobin (Hb), haematocrit, Mean Platelet Volume (MPV), or Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) (p>0.05). However, monocyte percentage was significantly higher (p-value <0.001) in BPAD patients (8.60±1.22) compared to SCZ patients (7.59±2.41). Although BPAD patients had slightly higher mean blood urea nitrogen and serum osmolality values, these differences were not significant. Conclusion: The present study found that most haematological, biochemical, inflammatory and serum osmolality parameters were similar in both groups. These suggest that these laboratory parameters alone may not be useful in differentiating BPAD from SCZ.