Medication effect on lymphocyte morphology in schizophrenia.

Past studies on the occurrence of atypical lymphocytes in the blood of individuals with schizophrenia are contradictory; some researchers have argued that such cells are a genetic marker of the disease while others have explained the cells simply as an effect of antipsychotic drugs. The present study blindly measured atypical lymphocytes in 14 schizophrenics on medication for at least 6 weeks and off medication for at least 4 weeks, ten Huntington's disease patients on antipsychotic medication, and ten normal controls. The patients with schizophrenia (P less than 0.05) and those with Huntington's disease (P less than 0.02) both had significantly more atypical lymphocytes than the normal controls. However no difference was found in the percentage of atypical lymphocytes in patients with schizophrenia on and off medication. The authors cite the need for studies of first-admission, never-tested patients to definitively settle this question.