Researchers from the American College of Rheumatology examined the association between schizophrenic genetic susceptibility loci and psychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus at the Lupus Clinic at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. This study consisted of 513 participants, with 31% being of European descent and 28% being of Asian descent. The researchers concluded there was no association between schizophrenia and lupus observed in their multiethnic cohort. 


University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Psychiatric researchers are investigating the connection between systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and schizophrenia. Though some individuals may be diagnosed with both, the causative link between lupus and schizophrenic symptoms remains inconclusive in these instances. 

The Possible Link Between Lupus and Schizophrenia

Ana C. Ulloa, Fangming Liao, Raffaella L. Carlomagno, Talia Diaz, Daniela Dominguez, Deborah M. Levy, Lawrence Ng, Andrea M. Knight, Linda T. Hiraki. Schizophrenia Genetics and Neuropsychiatric Features in Childhood-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. The Journal of Rheumatology Feb 2022, 49 (2) 192-196; DOI: 10.3899/jrheum.210363.


Schizophrenia Genetics and Neuropsychiatric Features in Childhood-onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus


After suffering a traumatic experience in 1995, April Burrell was hospitalized and later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nearly 20 years later, Sander Markx, director of precision psychiatry at Columbia University, discovered that April’s immune system was overproducing antibodies that were only attacking her brain. Through an intensive six month immunotherapy treatment for April’s lupus  — where her brain would receive powerful pulses of steroids into its veins five times a month — April’s schizophrenic symptoms quickly abated until she was deemed mentally competent to be discharged from the psychiatric hospital where she had resided for two decades. 

The Case of April Burrell

In a cross-sectional study comparing Israel’s Clalit Health Services patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) regarding the proportion of patients with comorbid schizophrenia, researchers found a positive association between SLE and schizophrenia across age, gender, and socioeconomic status. 


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