Presentation Information
[SY-8-01]Schizophrenia and Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Insight into the Possible Associations and Shared Common Immunopathology
*Yi-Chun Liu1,2, Vincent Chin-Hung Chen3 (1.Changhua Christian Children's Hospital(Taiwan), 2.Changhua Christian Hospital(Taiwan), 3.Chang Gung University(Taiwan))
Keywords:
Schizophrenia,Type 1 diabetes mellitus,IL-17/Th17-mediated immunity
Schizophrenia and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) are chronic, disabling conditions that may share overlapping immunopathological mechanisms. This symposium explores their potential association through a scoping review of observational studies, a population-based cohort study using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (2004–2018), and a review of immunological research, particularly IL-17/Th17 involvement. While IL-17 is variably elevated in schizophrenia—especially in drug-naïve or acute-phase patients and those with severe symptoms—it is consistently implicated in autoimmune β-cell destruction in T1D. Antipsychotic effects on IL-17 remain inconsistent, and its role in clinical improvement is unclear. Maternal immune changes during pregnancy may influence fetal immune programming and offspring T1D risk. However, no studies in our review examined this link. The cohort study of over 2.5 million mother–child pairs found no significant association between maternal psychiatric disorders and offspring T1D. Subgroup analysis suggested a trend for maternal bipolar disorder (aHR: 1.81; 95% CI: 0.83–3.82), though schizophrenia cases were too few for reliable estimates. These findings highlight the need for longitudinal, mechanistic studies to clarify shared immune pathways and contribute to treatment or prevention strategies.