The significance of anti-neuronal antibodies for acute psychiatric disorders: a retrospective case-controlled study
- PMID: 30390633
- PMCID: PMC6215671
- DOI: 10.1186/s12868-018-0471-7
The significance of anti-neuronal antibodies for acute psychiatric disorders: a retrospective case-controlled study
Abstract
Background: The clinical significance of anti-neuronal antibodies in patients with psychiatric disorders, but without encephalitis, remains unknown. In patients admitted to acute psychiatric inpatient care we aimed to identify clinical features distinguishing anti-neuronal antibody positive patients from matched controls.
Results: Patients who were serum-positive to N-methyl D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) (n = 21), contactin-associated protein 2 (CASPR2) (n = 14) and/or glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) (n = 9) antibodies (cases) were age and sex matched (1:2) with serum-negative patients from the same cohort (controls). The prevalence and severity of psychiatric symptoms frequently encountered in NMDAR, CASPR2 and GAD65 antibody associated disorders were compared in cases and controls. NMDAR, CASPR2 and GAD65 antibody positive patients did not differ in their clinical presentation from matched serum negative controls.
Conclusion: In this cohort, patients with and without NMDAR, CASPR2 and GAD65 antibodies admitted to acute psychiatric inpatient care had similar psychiatric phenotypes. This does not exclude their clinical relevance in subgroups of patients, and studies further investigating the clinical significance of anti-neuronal antibodies in patients with psychiatric symptomatology are needed.
Keywords: Anti-neuronal antibodies; Mental disorders; NMDA receptor antibodies; Psychoneuroimmunology.
Figures

References
-
- Busse S, Busse M, Brix B, Probst C, Genz A, Bogerts B, et al. Seroprevalence of N-methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDA-R) autoantibodies in aging subjects without neuropsychiatric disorders and in dementia patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2014;264(6):545–550. doi: 10.1007/s00406-014-0493-9. - DOI - PubMed
-
- Castillo-Gomez E, Oliveira B, Tapken D, Bertrand S, Klein-Schmidt C, Pan H, et al. All naturally occurring autoantibodies against the NMDA receptor subunit NR1 have pathogenic potential irrespective of epitope and immunoglobulin class. Mol Psychiatry. 2017;22:1776–1784. doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.125. - DOI - PubMed
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical