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Immunoglobulins and Viral Antibodies in Psychiatric Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. Fuller Torrey
Affiliation:
Saint Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, DC 20032
Michael R. Peterson
Affiliation:
formerly Division of Virology, Bureau of Biologics, Food and Drug Administration
William L. Brannon
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, National Naval Medical Center
William T. Carpenter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Baltimore
Robert M. Post
Affiliation:
Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health
Daniel P. Van Kammen
Affiliation:
Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, USA

Summary

The serum and CSF of 66 patients with functional psychoses were tested for immunoglobulins and antibodies to measles, HSV-1, CMV, and rubella viruses. Ten surgical and 80 neurological patients were controls. There were no significant findings in the serum, consistent with most previous studies. In the CSF 6 of 17 multiple admission schizophrenic patients had definite elevations of IgG or measles antibody and differed significantly from the surgical controls. Immunologically this group resembled the seriously ill neurological patients. No previous study has been made of immunoglobulins or viral antibodies in the CSF of psychiatric patients. It is concluded that further work is warranted in a search for biological subgroups of schizophrenia.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

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