The effects of confounding factors on the expression changes in BDNF and TrkB mRNAs in schizophrenia. Mean ± SD percentage of differences from control subjects for BDNF (A) and TrkB (B) mRNAs within subject pairs grouped by potential confounding factors in subjects with schizophrenia. Neither sex, substance abuse/dependence history, history of antidepressant medications, diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, nor cause of death significantly affected the expression changes in BDNF or TrkB mRNAs. For the comparison of BDNF mRNA expression change (A), pair 5 in cohort 2 was excluded. The numbers within each bar indicate the number of subject pairs.