Prostaglandin receptor sensitivity in psychiatric disorders.

The cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) responses to prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) in platelets and leukocytes from drug-free schizophrenic patients, depressive patients, and normal controls have been compared. Both schizophrenic and depressive patients had a significantly lower platelet cAMP response to PGE1 than controls. The platelet cAMP response to PGE1 did not discriminate among exacerbated, remitted, and poor-prognosis schizophrenic patients, or between exacerbated and remitted depressive patients. The cAMP response to PGE1 was negatively correlated with global symptom severity in actively ill schizophrenic patients, but was not correlated with symptom severity in exacerbated depressive patients. The leukocyte cAMP response to PGE1 did not differ among normal controls, schizophrenic patients, and depressive patients. These data indicate that a diminished platelet cAMP response to PGE1 may be a marker common to both schizophrenia and depression but that this effect does not extend to a cAMP-linked PGE1 receptor on another blood cell type.