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symptoms associated with other parasites like Giardia, Ascaris some medications used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder psychosis (roundworm) and Trichinella, viruses like Borna virus, may actually work by inhibiting the replication of Toxoplasma and bacteria such as Borrelia burgdorferi, responsible for Lyme gondii (Jones-Brando, Torrey, Yolken). Lyme disease), and documentation of patients' Paralleling these findings in the herbal realm, it may yet turn out "psychiatric" symptoms resolving when the underlying hidden that the potent naphtodianthrone activity against envelope viruses infection is treated. Borna virus, well known to cause encephalitis demonstrated by St John's wort is an element in its antidepressive and behavioural disturbances in horses and other mammals, is effects. And the latest research suggests that hyperforin, a unique present in nearly everyone with schizophrenia and depression, yet —_ phloroglucinol antibiotic component of St John's wort, effective is found in only a third of healthy controls; and Borna viral against multiple drug resistant gram-positive bacteria, is the most markers, isolated from the monocytes of patients with mood likely active ingredient responsible for its mood-elevating effects, disorders, coincide with acute episodes of those mood disorders. not hypericin—to which almost all commercial preparations are Dr J. Packman of Yale University wrote in 1992 that "Patients standardised (Lawrance). with parasitic loads are more likely to exhibit mental status Other studies have shown that antipsychotic drugs like changes, and there is an improvement in mental status of a subset Thorazine, Haldol and Clozapine inhibit viral replication and that of psychiatric patients following treatment for parasites". In fact,a _ the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with recent-onset schizophrenia review of 1,300 human cases of trichinosis in Germany found cen- _ shows a 400% increase in reverse transcriptase activity, which is tral nervous system involvement in up to 24% of the cases an important component of infectious retroviruses. (Hypericin (meningeal inflammation or encephalitis) (Froscher). also acts upon reverse transcriptase.) Furthermore, when the CSF Clinically, in cases like neurocys- from these patients was used to inoculate ticercosis, the problem is not the lack a New World monkey cell line there of a well-defined mechanism but the was a tenfold increase in reverse lack of mental health practitioners transcriptase activity, which suggests qualified to make such a diagnosis or In the late 19th century, the presence of a replicating virus. even suspect it. ("I wouldn't have seen schizophrenia and bipolar Independently, Dr Darren Hart of it if I hadn't believed it.") Even infec- disorder went from being rare Tulane University School of Medicine tious disease specialists tend to under- found evidence of antibodies to estimate the scope of the problem, in diseases to relatively common retrovirus in the blood of half the part due to underreporting (neurocys- ones at the same time that cat patients he tested who were diagnosed ticercosis is not a reportable condition . with schizophrenia and_ bipolar in most states and the incidence of ownership became popular. disorder. Malhotra, looking at genetic trichinosis is, we believe, vastly under- predisposition factors, demonstrated estimated according to newly devel- the absence of CCR5-32 homozygotes oped antibody assays only made avail- in over 200 schizophrenic patients, able in the northern spring/summer of which dramatically increases 2003). susceptibility to retroviral infection (F. Yee). (Yet bad genes alone * Next are those parasitic, bacterial and viral infections like cannot explain severe conditions like schizophrenia because such toxoplasmosis, strep, Borna virus and CMV, where a strong sta- illnesses dramatically reduce the subject's reproductive fitness and tistical link to mental illness has been demonstrated but research is would ultimately fall victim to natural selection. Instead, underway to establish a causal connection. In humans, acute infec- schizophrenia rates keep rising.) tion with Toxoplasma gondii can cause brain lesions, changes in It is research like this that has led Johns Hopkins virologist personality and symptoms of psychosis including delusions and Robert Yolken and psychiatry professor and former special auditory hallucinations. assistant to the Director of the National Institute for Mental Health Researchers at Rockefeller University and NIMH have suggest- Dr E. Fuller Torrey to believe that Toxoplasma is one of several ed that after streptococcal infection, some children may develop infectious agents that causes most cases of schizophrenia and abrupt-onset obsessive compulsive disorder within a matter of bipolar disorder. The idea is not new; in fact, as far back as 1922, weeks (Swedo, NIMH). the famous psychiatrist Karl Menninger hypothesised that Toxoplasma gondii can alter behaviour and neurotransmitter schizophrenia was "in most instances the by-product of viral function. Since 1953, 18 out of 19 studies of T. gondii antibodies encephalitis". Torrey notes that in the late 19th century, in persons with schizophrenia and other severe psychiatric disor- schizophrenia and bipolar disorder went from being rare diseases to ders have reported a higher percentage of T. gondii antibodies in relatively common ones at the same time that cat ownership became the affected persons. For example, in one large study, toxoplasmo- popular. And Yolken designed a retrospective study of 2,500 sis infection was twice as common in mentally handicapped families, showing that mothers of children who later developed patients as in healthy controls, and in a recent German study of psychoses were 4.5 times more likely to have antibodies to "individuals with first-episode schizophrenia compared to matched Toxoplasma than the mothers of healthy controls. (For those controls, 42% of the former compared to just 11% of the latter had looking for a novel defence in traffic court, recent research suggests antibodies to Toxoplasma". that people with toxoplasmosis have slower reaction times and are Two other studies found that exposure to cats (the primary more than twice as likely to be involved in a traffic accident.) carrier for toxoplasmosis transmission) in childhood was a risk Yolken was also the principal investigator in a recent study of factor for the development of schizophrenia. Furthermore, certain patients who had suffered from schizophrenia for an average of antipsychotic and mood-stabiliser drugs such as haloperidol and over 22 years. In 21 schizophrenic patients who also tested posi- valproic acid inhibited this parasite in vitro at a concentration tive for cytomegalovirus, there was a significant improvement in below that found in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood of overall "psychiatric symptoms" when the subjects were given oral individuals being treated with this medication, suggesting that valacyclovir, an antiviral medication, for eight weeks (American In the late 19th century, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder went from being rare Se Ae ee 1G En = SPN oa ee diseases to relatively common ones at the same time that cat 38 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2004 ownership became popular. www.nexusmagazi ne.com