Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

Study Suggests that Aspirin May Lower Schizophrenia Risk

New research suggests that aspirin and ibuprofen use by male teens may offer some protection against developing schizophrenia. Caution should however be taken in the interpretation of this because its early research (one study), its only a retrospective analysis of schizophrenia incidence rates, and because excessive aspirin use causes many adverse effects and medical problems (internal bleeding, etc.). In other words - this is interesting research - but too early to draw any firm conclusions from - and not something that anyone should act on yet - though perhaps something to discuss with your doctor if you have a very high family risk of schizophrenia (e.g. multiple family members with schizophrenia). Coated versions of baby aspirin (dosage 80 to 100 mg) are widely available and seems to have greatly reduced risk of internal bleeding (see here).

The research was titled "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of psychosis," and was published in European Neuropsychopharmacology. The scientists, who are based in Utrecht, Netherlands, reported that the objective of the research was to examine the relation between non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) use and risk of psychosis. To this end they performed a longitudinal case-control study using prescription data from a Dutch health insurance company.

The study evaluated a public health database covering younger men and women. "Men aged 25 years or over and women aged 30 years or over were excluded to prevent inclusion of non-incident cases. This resulted in eighty-two cases and 359 randomly selected controls from the same population.

The researchers concluded: After stratification for gender the risk of psychosis was significantly lower (59%) in male NSAID users only. "These results suggest that in men NSAIDs may lower the risk of psychosis."

Research Study: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of psychosis

Related Reading: Nicotine Use as a Young Adult, May Reduce Schizophrenia Risk