SCHIZOPHRENIA may soon be diagnosed with a simple test. Researchers in
Scotland have shown that the breath of schizophrenics contains high levels of
the alkanes butane and ethane.
Schizophrenics break down fatty acids in their cell membranes faster than
normal. The researchers suspected that this process, which is known as
peroxidation, might lead to high levels of alkanes in patients鈥� breath. 鈥淲hat
we鈥檝e done is to use breath sampling to measure the total breakdown of fatty
acids,鈥� says psychiatrist Iain Glen of the Highland Psychiatric Research
Foundation, Craig Dunain Hospital in Inverness, who talked about the work at a
Royal College of Psychiatry conference in Edinburgh last month.
Glen, along with biochemist Marion Ross, measured ethane in the breath of
three schizophrenic patients. They found 11.1 nanograms of the hydrocarbon per
litre, compared with 6.6 nanograms per litre in three non-schizophrenics.
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The researchers also tested six patients for butane in the breath. Levels
were highest in two chronically ill patients who were not on medication, but
lower in more stable patients and those on medication. Butane could not be
detected on the breath of someone who was not schizophrenic. Ross and Glen are
about to start a larger study to confirm their results.