Objective To investigate the levels of interferon-γ（ INF-γ） and tumor necrosis factor-α （TNF-α） in serum of schizophrenic patients without antipsychotics and the correlation between these levels and symptoms. Methods Totals of 38 cases of schizophrenia patients admitted to psychiatric department of the eighth Hospital of Shijiazhuang were selected as subjects from March 2015 to March 2017. Meanwhile， 30 health care workers of the eighth Hospital of Shijiazhuang were selected as control group. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay（ ELISA） was used to detect serum levels of INF-γ and TNF-α， and Positive and Negative Symptom Scale（ PANSS） was used to assess the severity of symptoms. Results The level of serum INF-γ［ （288.36±97.84）pg/ml］ in the study group were significantly higher than the control group（ 225.81±76.95）pg/m（l t=2.869， P ＜ 0.05）， meanwhile the level of serum TNF-α［ （8.59±3.35） pg/ml］ in the study group were significantly higher than the control group［ （5.93±2.96）pg/ml］（ t=3.420， P ＜ 0.05）. The serum INF-γ and TNF-α levels were positively correlated with the total score of PANSS， and mainly related to negative symptoms（ P ＜ 0.05）. Conclusions In the early stages of the onset of schizophrenia， the body had inflammatory reaction activated status. The inflammatory reaction may affect the negative symptoms in schizophrenia during acute phase.