Sex difference in cerebrospinal fluid/blood albumin quotients in patients with schizophreniform and affective psychosis

The importance of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diagnostics for psychiatry is growing. The CSF/blood albumin quotient (Q ) is considered to be a measure of the blood-CSF barrier function. Recently, systematically higher Q in males than in females was described in neurological patients. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a sex difference could also be detected in a well-characterized psychiatric cohort. The patient cohort comprised 989 patients, including 545 females and 444 males with schizophreniform and affective syndromes who underwent CSF diagnostics, including Q measurement. The basic CSF findings and antineuronal autoantibody data of this cohort have already been published. This re-analysis employed analysis of covariance with age correction for Q mean values and chi -testing for the number of increased age-corrected Q levels to investigate sex differences in Q . The Q levels were elevated above reference levels by 18% across all patients, and a comparison between male and female patients revealed a statistically significant sex difference, with increased values in 26% of male patients and a corresponding rate of only 10% in female patients (chi = 42.625, p