Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T03:46:01.732Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Viruses, Immunity and Mental Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David J. King  and
Stephen J. Cooper
David J. King*
Affiliation:
Department of Therapeutics and Pharmacology, The Queen's University of Belfast, and Consultant Psychiatrist, Holywell Hospital, Northern Ireland
Stephen J. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, The Queen's University of Belfast, The Whitla Medical Building, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Are viruses the cause of mental illness, or does stress or mental disorder produce impaired immunity, with increased susceptibility to infection? These two separate but not unrelated questions have been debated periodically and there has been much renewed interest recently, with increased sophistication in immunology and widespread topical concern about immunodeficiency. The neuropsychiatry of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (Snider et al, 1983; Carne & Adler, 1986; Wortis, 1986; Burton, 1987; Fenton, 1987) and the validity of a ‘post-viral fatigue syndrome’ as a clinical entity (Behan, 1983; Southern & Oldstone, 1986; Dawson, 1987; David et al, 1988) are not discussed here, but have been dealt with in the editorials and reviews cited.

Type
Annotation
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue 1 , January 1989 , pp. 1 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abé, K. (1969) The morbidity rate and environmental influence in monozygotic co-twins of schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 116, 519–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albrecht, P., Torrey, E. F., Boone, E., et al (1980) Raised cytomegalovirus – antibody level in cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients. Lancet, ii, 769–772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albrecht, J., Helderman, J. H., Schlesser, M. A., et al (1985) A controlled study of cellular immune function in affective disorders before and during somatic therapy. Psychiatry Research, 15, 185–193.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allen, I. V., Cosby, S. L., Kirk, J., et al (1987) Neuropathology and neurovirulence of canine distemper virus plaque isolates in the hamster. Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology, 13, 349–369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Amsterdam, J. D., Henle, W., Winokur, A., et al (1986) Serum antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus in patients with major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 1593–1596.Google Scholar
Aulakh, G. S., Kleinman, J. E., Aulakh, H. S., et al (1981) Search for cytomegalovirus in schizophrenic brain tissue. Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 167, 172–174.Google Scholar
Baker, H. F., Ridley, R. M., Crow, T. J., et al (1983) An investigation of the effects of intracerebral injection in the marmoset of cytopathic cerebrospinal fluid from patients with schizophrenia or neurological disease. Psychological Medicine, 13, 499–511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baker, G. H. B., Irani, M. S., Byrom, N. A., et al (1985) Stress, cortisol concentrations, and lymphocyte subpopulations. British Medical Journal, 290, 1393.Google Scholar
Bartrop, R. W., Luckhurst, E., Lazarus, L., et al (1977) Depressed lymphocyte function after bereavement. The Lancet, i, 834–836.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behan, P. O. (1983) Postviral neurological syndromes. British Medical Journal, 287, 853–854.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bertouch, J. V., Roberts-Thompson, P. J. & Bradley, J. (1983) Diurnal variation of lymphocyte subsets identified by monoclonal antibodies. British Medical Journal, 286, 1171–1172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Breier, A., Arora, P. K., Wolkowitz, O. M., et al (1987) Metabolic stress produces rapid immunosuppression in humans. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 1108–1109.Google ScholarPubMed
British Medical Journal (1967) Antibodies in schizophrenics. British Medical Journal, ii, 569–570.Google Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. (1964) Schizophrenia: some new aetiological considerations. British Journal of Psychiatry, 110, 818–824.Google Scholar
Burton, S. W. (1987) The psychiatry of HIV infection. British Medical Journal, 295, 228–229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calabrese, J. R., Skwerer, R. G., Barna, B., et al (1986) Depression, immunocompetence, and prostaglandins of the E series. Psychiatry Research, 17, 41–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cappel, R., Gregoire, F., Thiry, L., et al (1978) Antibody and cell-mediated immunity to herpes simplex virus in psychotic depression. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 39, 266–268.Google ScholarPubMed
Carne, C. A. & Adler, M. W. (1986) Neurological manifestations of human immunodeficiency virus infection. British Medical Journal, 293, 462–463.Google Scholar
Cleobury, J. F., Skinner, G. R. B., Thouless, M. E., et al (1971) Association between psychopathic disorder and serum antibody to herpes simplex virus (type 1). British Medical Journal, i, 438–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffey, C. E., Sullivan, J. L. & Rice, J. R. (1983) T lymphocytes in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 18, 113–119.Google ScholarPubMed
Cooper, S. J., Kelly, J. G. & King, D. J. (1985) Adrenergic receptors in depression: effects of electroconvulsive therapy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 23–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, S. J., Best, S. & King, D. J. (1987) Can psychiatric nurses ‘catch’ schizophrenia? British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 546–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J. (1978) Viral causes of psychiatric disease. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 54, 763–767.Google Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1981) Biological basis of mental disorders: the case for viral aetiology. In Epidemiological Impact of Psychotropic Drugs (eds Tognoni, G., Bellantuono, C. & Lader, M.), pp. 33–51. Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press.Google Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1983) Is schizophrenia an infectious disease? Lancet, i, 173–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1984) A re-evaluation of the viral hypothesis: is psychosis the result of retroviral integration at a site close to the cerebral dominance gene? British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 243–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crow, T. J. & Done, D. J. (1986) Age of onset of schizophrenia in siblings: a test of the contagion hypothesis. Psychiatry Research, 18, 107–117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalén, P. (1968) Month of birth and schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Suppl. 203, 48–54.Google ScholarPubMed
David, A. S., Wessely, S. & Pelosi, A. J. (1988) Postviral fatigue syndrome: time for a new approach. British Medical Journal, 296, 696–699.Google Scholar
Dawson, J. (1987) Royal Free disease: perplexity continues. British Medical Journal, 294, 327–328.Google Scholar
DeLisi, L. E., Weinberger, D. R., Potkin, S., et al (1981) Quantitative determination of immunoglobulins in CSF and plasma of chronic schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 513–518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLisi, L. E., Goodman, S., Neckers, L. M., et al (1982) An analysis of lymphocyte subpopulations in schizophrenic patients. Biological Psychiatry, 17, 1003–1009.Google ScholarPubMed
DeLisi, L. E., King, A. C. & Targum, S. (1984) Serum immunoglobulin concentrations in patients admitted to an acute psychiatric inpatient service. British Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 661–666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLisi, L. E., Weber, R. J. & Pert, C. B. (1985) Are there antibodies against brain in sera from schizophrenic patients? Review and prospectus. Biological Psychiatry, 20, 110–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLisi, L. E., Nurnberger, J. I., Simmons-Alling, S., et al (1986) Epstein-Barr virus and depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 815–816.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denman, A. M. (1986) Immunity and depression. British Medical Journal, 293, 464–465.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunkel, L., Taino, V-M., Savilahti, E., et al (1985) Effect of endogenous androgens on lymphocyte subpopulations. Lancet ii, 440–441.Google Scholar
Falkai, P. & Bogerts, B. (1986) Cell loss in the hippocampus of schizophrenics. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Science, 236, 154–161.Google Scholar
Fauman, M. A. (1982) The central nervous system and the immune system. Biological Psychiatry, 17, 1459–1482.Google Scholar
Fenton, T. W. (1987) AIDS-related psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 579–588.Google Scholar
Fine, P. E. M., Adelstein, A. M., Snowman, J., et al (1985) Long term effects of exposure to viral infections in utero. British Medical Journal, 290, 509–511.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giron, L. T., Crutcher, K. A. & Davis, J. N. (1980) Lymph nodes: a possible site for sympathetic neuronal regulation of immune responses. Annals of Neurology, 8, 520–525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotlieb-Stematsky, T., Zonis, J., Arlazoroff, A., et al (1981) Antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus, herpes simplex type 1, cytomegalovirus and measles virus in psychiatric patients. Archives of Virology, 67, 333–339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotlieb-Stematsky, T., Meron, I., Modan, M., et al (1983) Viral antibodies in maternal and cord sera. Medical Microbiology and Immunology, 172, 67–74.Google Scholar
Hall, J. G. (1985) Emotion and immunity. Lancet, ii, 326–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. G. (1987) Depression, stress and immunity. Lancet ii, 221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halonen, P. E., Rimón, R., Arohonka, K., et al (1974) Antibody levels to herpes simplex type 1, measles and rubella viruses in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 125, 461–465.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1979) Schizophrenia as an infectious disease. British Journal of Psychiatry, 135, 468–473.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H., Price, J. S. (1968) Mental disorder and season of birth: comparison of psychoses with neurosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 533–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, E. H., Price, J. S. & Slater, E. (1973) Mental disorder and season of birth. Nature, 241, 480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hellstrand, K., Hermodsson, S. & Strannegard, O. (1985) Evidence for a beta-adrenoceptor-mediated regulation of human natural killer cells. Journal of Immunology, 134, 4095–4099.Google Scholar
Huppert, J. & Wild, T. F. (1986) Virus-related pathology: is the continued presence of the virus necessary? Advances in Virus Research, 31, 357–385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irwin, M., Daniels, M., Bloom, E. T., et al (1987) Life events, depressive symptoms, and immune function. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 437–441.Google ScholarPubMed
Jakob, H. & Beckmann, H. (1986) Prenatal developmental disturbances in the limbic allocortex in schizophrenics. Journal of Neural Transmission, 65, 303–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, R. T. (1980) Selective vulnerability of neural cells to viral infections. Brain, 103, 447–472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, R. T. & Ter Meulen, V. (1978) Slow infections of the nervous system. Advances in Internal Medicine, 23, 353–383.Google Scholar
Kazanetz, E. F. (1979) Tecnica per investigare il ruolo di fattori ambientali sulla genesi della schizofrenia. Rivista di Psicologia Analitica, 10, 193–202.Google Scholar
Kelly, R. H., Ganguli, R. & Rabin, B. S. (1987) Antibody to discrete areas of the brain in normal individuals and patients with schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 22, 1488–1491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Ricker, D. & Georg, J. (1984) Urinary cortisol levels, cellular immunocompetency, and loneliness in psychiatric inpatients. Psychosomatic Medicine, 46, 15–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
King, D. J., Cooper, S. J., Earle, J. A. P., et al (1985a) A survey of serum antibodies to eight common viruses in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 137–144.Google Scholar
King, D. J., Cooper, S. J., Earle, J. A. P., et al (1985b) Serum and CSF antibody titres to seven common viruses in schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 145–149.Google Scholar
Kristensson, K. & Norrby, E. (1986) Persistence of RNA viruses in the central nervous system. Annual Reviews of Microbiology, 40, 159–184.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kronfol, Z., Silva, J., Gardner, R., et al (1983) Lymphocyte function in melancholia. Life Sciences, 33, 241–247.Google Scholar
Kronfol, Z., & House, J. D. (1984) Depression, cortisol and immune function. Lancet, i, 1026–1027.Google Scholar
Lancet (1985) Emotion and immunity. Lancet, ii, 133–134.Google Scholar
Lancet (1987) Depression, stress and immunity. Lancet, i, 1467–1468.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. S. & Griffin, T. (1981) An explanation for the season of birth effect in schizophrenia and certain other diseases. Psychological Bulletin, 89, 589–596.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, S. W. & Murray, R. M. (1987) Obstetric complications, neurodevelopmental deviance, and risk of schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 21, 413–423.Google Scholar
Libikcová, H., Breier, S., Kočišova, M., et al (1979) Assay of interferon and viral antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid in clinical neurology and psychiatry. Acta Biologica Et Medica Germanica, 38, 879–893.Google Scholar
Locke, S. E., Kraus, L., Leserman, J., et al (1984) Life change stress, psychiatric symptoms and natural killer cell activity. Psychosomatic Medicine, 46, 441–453.Google Scholar
Lycke, E., Norrby, R. & Roos, B-E. (1974) A serological study on mentally ill patients with particular reference to the prevalence of herpes virus infections. British Journal of Psychiatry, 124, 273–279.Google Scholar
Mann, A. & Lehmann, H. (1952) The eosinophil level in psychiatric conditions. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 66, 52–58.Google ScholarPubMed
McNeil, T. F. & Kaij, L. (1978) Obstetric factors in the development of schizophrenia: complications in the births of preschizophrenics and in reproduction by schizophrenic parents. In The Nature of Schizophrenia: New Approaches to Research and Treatment (eds Wynne, L. C., Cromwell, R. L. & Matthysse, S.), pp. 401–429. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Mednick, S. A., Parnas, J. & Schulsinger, F. (1987) The Copenhagen high-risk project, 1962–1986. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 485–495.Google Scholar
Menninger, K. A. (1926) Influenza and schizophrenia. An analysis of post-influenzal ‘dementia praecox’ as of 1918 and five years later. American Journal of Psychiatry, 5, 469–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menninger, K. A. (1928) The schizophrenic syndrome as a product of acute infectious disease. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 20, 464–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mered, B., Albrecht, P., Torrey, E. F., et al (1983) Failure to isolate virus from CSF of schizophrenics. Lancet, ii, 919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, D., Gardner, R., Greden, J. F., et al (1987) Lymphocyte numbers in endogenous depression. Psychological Medicine, 17, 381–385.Google Scholar
O'Hare, A., Walsh, D. & Torrey, F. (1980) Seasonality of schizophrenic births in Ireland. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 74–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pandey, R. S., Gupta, A. K. & Chaturvedi, U. C. (1981). Autoimmune model of schizophrenia with special reference to antibrain antibodies. Biological Psychiatry, 16, 1123–1136.Google ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. & Nielson, M. (1976) Mental disorder and season of birth –a Southern Hemisphere study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 355–361.Google Scholar
Parnas, J., Schulsinger, F., Teasdale, T. W., et al (1982) Perinatal complications and clinical outcome within the schizophrenia spectrum. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 416–420.Google Scholar
Pokorny, A. D., Rawls, W. E., Adam, E., et al (1973) Depression, psychopathy, and herpes virus type I antibodies. Lack of relationship. Archives of General Psychiatry, 29, 820–822.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poteliakhoff, A. (1985) Emotion and immunity. Lancet, ii, 327.Google Scholar
Rimon, R. & Halonen, P. (1969) Herpes simplex virus infection and depressive illness. Diseases of the Nervous System, 30, 338–340.Google Scholar
Rimon, R., Halonen, P., Anttinen, E., et al (1971) Complement fixing antibody to herpes simplex virus in patients with psychotic depression. Diseases of the Nervous System, 32, 822–824.Google ScholarPubMed
Rimon, R., Nishmi, M. & Halonen, P. (1978) Serum and CSF antibody levels to herpes simplex type 1, measles and rubella viruses in patients with schizophrenia. Annals of Clinical Research, 10, 291–293.Google ScholarPubMed
Rimon, R., Halonen, P., Puhakka, P, et al (1979) Immunoglobulin G antibodies to herpes simplex type 1 virus detected by radioimmunossay in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 40, 241–243.Google Scholar
Ritchie, A. W. S., Oswald, I., Micklem, H. S., et al (1983) Circadian variation of lymphocyte subpopulations: a study with monoclonal antibodies. British Medical Journal, 286, 1773–1775.Google Scholar
Roos, R. P., Davis, K. & Meltzer, H. Y. (1985) Immunoglobulin studies in patients with psychiatric diseases. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 124–128.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1962) Familial concordance by sex with respect to schizophrenia. Psychological Bulletin, 59, 401–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schleifer, S. J., Keller, S. E., Meyerson, A. T., et al (1984) Lymphocyte function in major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 484–486.Google Scholar
Schleifer, S. J., Keller, S. E., Siris, S. G., et al (1985) Depression and immunity. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 129–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sequiera, L. W., Jennings, L. C., Carrasco, L. H., et al (1979) Detection of herpes simplex viral genome in brain tissue. Lancet, ii, 609–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shimura, M., Nakamura, I. & Miura, T. (1977) Season of birth of schizophrenics in Tokyo, Japan. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 55, 225–232.Google Scholar
Snider, W. D., Simpson, D. M. & Nieber, S. (1983) Neurological complications of acquired immune deficiency syndrome: analysis of 50 patients. Annals of Neurology, 14, 403–418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Southern, P. & Oldstone, M. B. A. (1986) Medical consequences of persistent viral infection. New England Journal of Medicine, 314, 359–367.Google Scholar
Stevens, J. R., Langloss, J. M., Albrecht, P., et al (1984) A search for cytomegalovirus and herpes viral antigen in brains of schizophrenic patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 795–801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, G. R., Crow, T. J., Ferrier, I. N., et al (1982) Virus-like agent in CSF in schizophrenia and some neurological disorders. Lancet, ii, 1166–1167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, G. R., & Crow, T. J. (1986) Viruses in human brains: a search for cytomegalovirus and herpes virus I DNA in necropsy tissue from normal and neuropsychiatric cases. Psychological Medicine, 16, 289–295.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F. & Peterson, M. R. (1973) Slow and latent viruses in schizophrenia. Lancet, ii, 22–24.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F., Torrey, B. B. & Peterson, M. R. (1977) Seasonality of schizophrenic births in the United States. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 1065–1070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torrey, E. F., Peterson, M. R., Brannon, W. L., et al (1978) Immunoglobulins and viral antibodies in psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 132, 342–348.Google Scholar
Torrey, E. F., Yolken, R. H. & Winfrey, C. J. (1982) Cytomegalovirus antibody in cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients detected by enzyme immunoassay. Science, 216, 892–894.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watson, C. G., Kucala, T., Angulski, G., et al (1982) Season of birth and schizophrenia: a response to the Lewis and Griffin technique. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2, 120–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, C. G., Kucala, T., Tilleskjor, C., et al (1984) Schizophrenic birth seasonality in relation to the incidence of infectious diseases and temperature extremes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 85–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wortis, J. (1986) Neuropsychiatry of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Biological Psychiatry, 21, 1357–1359.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.