Creatine Phosphokinase Activity and Clinical Symptomatology: A Study in Acute Schizophrenic Patients

Serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and aldolase activities determined at admission and throughout hospitalization in 34 acute schizophrenic patients revealed 22 with increased activity of one or both enzymes. There was no difference in the percentage of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic diagnoses in the patients with or without increased serum CPK or aldolase activities, nor were the magnitude of the increases in serum CPK or aldolase activities significantly different. The second-order factor scores of the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale also did not differentiate patients with elevated or normal serum enzyme activities. Results indicate the necessity of studying psychotic patients from the onset of gross psychotic symptoms with repeated study of both serum CPK and aldolase activities throughout hospitalization before subgroups of psychotic patients with and without increased serum CPK or aldolase activities may be reliably discriminated.