"As many as half of the people who develop schizophrenia had previously attended child and adolescent mental health services for other mental health problems. At present, though, we don't have any interventions that are known to reduce the risk of going on to develop schizophrenia in these young people. That makes these findings exciting,” said lead author of the study, Professor Ian Kelleher, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, in a press release.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from over 56,000 individuals who had attended adolescent psychiatric services and used antibiotics. They were followed from their first antibiotic prescription until age 30 and tracked for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Just over 16,000 participants- or 28.7%- had used doxycycline.
Ultimately, the researchers found that individuals who had used doxycycline were significantly less likely to develop schizophrenia than those who used other antibiotics. While 1.4-1.5% of those who used doxycycline developed schizophrenia within 10 years, the same was true for 2.1% of individuals who used other antibiotics.
The researchers calculated that individuals who used doxycycline had a 30-35% lower risk of developing schizophrenia than those who had used other antibiotics.
"Because the study was observational in nature and not a randomized controlled trial, it means we can't draw firm conclusions on causality, but this is an important signal to further investigate the protective effect of doxycycline and other anti-inflammatory treatments in adolescent psychiatry patients as a way to potentially reduce the risk of developing severe mental illness in adulthood,” said Kelleher.
Sources: Science Daily, American Journal of Psychiatry
