Infection and Mental Illness Link
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
The November 2019 issue of Psychiatric Times features an article by Brian Miller, MD, PhD, MPH titled, "Examining the Link Between the Immune System and Schizophrenia." This article reports prepublication results of a study conducted by Steiner, Fodl and Schitz (Schizophrenia Bulletin: August 2019 pre-pub) indicating a significant rise in CRP (c. reactive protein) levels, neutrophil and monocyte levels in first episode schizophrenics (untreated) but subsequent neutrophil and monocytes counts may well be indicators of disease acuity, severity and treatment response.
All is far from said and done; it is unclear whether or not the onset of schizophrenia produces a reactive anti-inflammatory process in the body or an anti-inflammatory immune system response is the cause of the acute disease. It is also possible that both are true simultaneously. Recent studies also point to increased suicidality in college students whose history includes eating disorder from simple gourmandizing to bulimia. Body and mind (and mental process is the product of brain activity) are connected. There is no Jacksonian dualism here.
The presence of infection in the bodies of gravid women is associated with the development of schizophrenia in offspring (particularly male) if the infection is multiorgan, the number rises. Now race and socioeconomic status come into play. Being poor, being non-white, having an income from prostitution, being addicted or an alcoholic weights the scales for producing schizophrenic offspring in their adolescence given their survival from fetal alcoholism and addictive disorders.
If the most sophisticated nations are unable to stem the tide of neurodegenerative disease and moral degeneration, authoritarian cleansing solutions (e.g. genocide and ethnic cleansing) will become more appetizing. The pool of knowledge has to permeate boundaries, world governments have to cooperate in controlling pandemic spread whether it be of disease, starvation, addiction or crime.
