The Inflammatory Signals Associated with Psychosis: Impact of Comorbid Drug Abuse

Psychosis and substance use disorders are two diagnostic categories whose association has been studied for decades. In addition, both psychosis spectrum disorders and drug abuse have recently been linked to multiple pro-inflammatory changes in the central nervous system. We have carried out a narrative review of the literature through a holistic approach. We used PubMed as our search engine. We included in the review all relevant studies looking at pro-inflammatory changes in psychotic disorders and substance use disorders. We found that there are multiple studies that relate various pro-inflammatory lipids and proteins with psychosis and substance use disorders, with an overlap between the two. The main findings involve inflammatory mediators such as cytokines, chemokines, endocannabinoids, eicosanoids, lysophospholipds and/or bacterial products. Many of these findings are present in different phases of psychosis and in substance use disorders such as cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamines, alcohol and nicotine. Psychosis and substance use disorders may have a common origin in an abnormal neurodevelopment caused, among other factors, by a neuroinflammatory process. A possible convergent pathway is that which interrelates the transcriptional factors NF kappa B and PPAR gamma. This may have future clinical implications.

Automated summary

Psychosis and substance use disorders have been associated with pro-inflammatory changes in the central nervous system, and multiple studies have found a link between these disorders. Inflammatory mediators such as cytokines, chemokines, endocannabinoids, eicosanoids, lysophospholipids, and bacterial products are involved in both psychosis and substance use disorders. The abnormal neurodevelopment caused by neuroinflammation may be a common origin for these disorders, and the transcriptional factors NF kappa B and PPAR gamma may play a role in this process.