Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

"I'm not sure what that does--or doesn't do--to various chemical imbalance theories of schizophrenia, or to the arguments of those who feel that childhood abuse gives rise to schizophrenia, or to the assertions of those (like the feds) who insist that marijuana causes schizophrenia, but there you have it."

I guess we'll see how the scientific community chooses to run with the info. But like bipolar, schizophrenia is not a disease but rather a collection of symptoms (yes, there is supposedly research proving that it is genetic, but also info discrediting that research), and I personally believe that in different people it has a varying combination of causes. To reduce such a complex experience to any one of these theories would be to do those who suffer from it a tremendous disservice. (Oh wait... that's already been done with the biochemical theory...) Just my two cents.

One problem with studies like this is that there is no real diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia. The abstract of the first study you linked to doesn't say that psychosis is linked to the virus, it says that in "individuals discharged from the U.S. military with a diagnosis of schizophrenia" there was a significant positive association between the antibody and being discharged from the military with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. I have a very close friend who is a Gulf War I veteran. He is finishing college, running a successful business, and is a good and loving father. Also, he sees someone at the VA for PTSD and has some heart problems and diabetes. He called me one day because he had finally gotten his phsrink to give him his diagnosis, it's not ptsd it's schizophrenia and of course he's not schizophrenic.

The second study discusses "nonaffective psychotic illness as well as schizophrenia," again suffering from accuracy as there is no real way to determine whether someone has schizophrenia. (I know I know we all feel that we know it when we see it but there's problems with that way of diagnosing). Another problem with the second study is that it looks not at the cat litter virus but at cns infections. My googling indicates polio the main condition the researchers are referring to when they use the term "cns infection." Having a cns infection in childhood would seem to have the potential to be extremely traumatic, emotionally and physically, and thus I'm not sure I see a way the researchers can separate biology from life experience.

Nonetheless, I once had the pleasure of dating a "deadhead." He didn't actually follow the Grateful Dead around, but he envied people who did and he took a lot of LSD. When he and his pals where on LSD they met my definition of psychotic. When the drug got out of their systems they were "normal" again, leading me to think that when someone is psychotic there are chemical changes in their brain. But which comes first the episode that causes psychosis, as in PTSD, or the chemical change, as in taking LSD, does seem to have relevance. I'm digressing. This is a thought provoking piece.

Sorry, one more thing about this study, keeping in mind that I think behavior labeled as schizophrenia is caused by trauma which causes changes in brain chemistry and can see how exposure to a virus can count as trauma, the fact that someone is discharged from the military for symptoms labeled severe mental illness that person didn't have before when admitted to the military goes a long way towards proving that trauma causes mental illness. Maybe it's the trauma of being exposed to the cat litter virus in the military (or some other toxin used in war, remember all the problems from agent orange), maybe not. Maybe some of the numbers are inflated because if the military can say you are schizophrenic and that schizophrenia is a biological condition separate from any trauma you suffered during your service, they don't have to pay you benefits because it is not a service related disability as opposed to labeling you ptsd which means they military caused your "illness" and you get benefits.

Look for a test to see if folks have been exposed to the virus as way for the va to avoid paying ptsd disability benefits.

Schizophrenic symptoms, especially psychosis, can arise from all sorts of stressors to the system I'm sure and parasites are undoubtedly one of them. The point is schizophrenia, like your recent post on bipolar, includes such a wide spectrum of clusters of symptoms that an awful lot of things fall under its umbrella, making it a little suspect as one "disease" or "disorder" frankly. I have no doubt that "it" probably can arise from a wide variety of causes including cat feces as bizarre as it seems. Whatever toxin such a parasite may be introducing to the brain I'm quite sure that treating it with yet another one in the form of an atypical antipsychotic is not the answer.

According to Torrey when I heard him speak in person; Toxoplasma gondii is airborne, we are all exposed to it, cats or not; and we are carriers of it. He says it's just never known who will become SZ or not.

If one were to consider CFS[Chronic Fatigue Syndrome][Epstein barr virus]and how it is a transcient virus, which we all have dormant, and once again depending on the virus attacking a body, and how many people with Bipolar also say that have CFS; the virus theory is a good one and a real explanation as to why medications do not really work.

The fact that the military is at risk is something to point out; because there are pockets of all illnesses, such as MS in regions; ask a epidemiologist and they can tell you where high rates of many immune system illnesses are located in large groups.

The theory that Toxoplasma gondii being airborne, and not really directly related to just cat droppings, is what needs to be noted here.

It means we are all exposed, and all have a possibility of becoming/having SZ or possibly BP.Torrey says Haldol is an anti viral, anti psychotic, but had no explanation as to why it is anti viral, yet Stanley Foundation is working on an under the skin disk; and Torrey believes in SZ prevention.

While the ultimate cause of schizophrenia remains unknown, I too studied in some research that chemical changes in a person's body during puberty are also believed to have an impact, since schizophrenia most often begins at that point in life. Severe stress, viral infections and other external factors are also believed to be causes of schizophrenia..
Car Breakdown

These are just two more in a very long line of dubious studies claiming to have found a physical basis for 'schizophrenia', a condition that even the people who go around 'diagnosing' it admit they can't really define, and I for one don't find them the least bit convincing.

I think that a lot of what's behind the desperate and increasingly ridiculous search for physical causes and genetic defects is parents' fear of any social-interaction theory of 'schizophrenia' causation suggesting that they could be in any way responsible for their children's condition. It's sort of a shrunken-down version of the dogma that since 'mental illnesses' are physical brain diseases, there is little reason to look with the eyes of a social critic at the situations and circumstances in which people live.

Torrey (aka Mr. Cat Poop) and his ilk have been clutching at straws for years, trying to find any physical factor that could be in some way statistically associated with 'schizophrenia' in order to prop up their dogma that 'schizophrenia' is A) a real disease like diabetes, and B) therefor, no one can possibly blame, criticize, or cast any aspersions on the families of people who get the 'schizophrenia' label.

The first major task of NAMI was to push back against the idea of a 'schizophrenergic' mother who induced psychosis in her offspring with an overbearing, intrusive parenting style and 'double-bind' communication (e.g. the injunction 'go play independently' since it is impossible to play or to be independent just because someone orders you to). This idea has never been proven, nor has it been disproved, because since it was proposed decades ago, it has never really been tested. The one study that sort of looked at this angle did show that people with psychosis tended to get worse when they were discharged back to family situations with a high level of intrusive and inconsistent communication. It's not surprising that parents and parents' organizations like NAMI aren't pushing for studies that could potentially implicate anything the families have done as contributing to their children's suffering when it's so much easier to blame neurochemicals and genetics and viruses and cat poop, and just about any other physical factor that offers a no-fault explanation.

I'm not interested in blaming the families of people who get diagnosed with severe mental illness any more than I want to blame the parents of kids who get lead poisoning. I just think the we need to resist the temptation to see human beings as mechanistic objects (especially in such negative, distancing ways like those others who are diseased, disordered, genetically defective or inferior, infested with parasites, etc), since it is impossible to really understand anyone's thoughts and actions (especially the far-out freaky stuff that gets labeled psychosis) with out trying to understand their experience as a person.

I have personal experience of the alarming capability of pathogens to severely alter mental state.

Full details on my blog: http://chronicsorethroat.wordpress.com/

In brief: a chronic respiratory virus I caught began to induce severe mental state changes, not dissimilar to schizophrenia. Several people (non-familial) who caught this virus also exhibited significant mental state changes (so these mental changes are almost certainly attributable to the virus, not genetics).

It makes me wonder: if there are viruses that can create such severe disturbances in mental state then, even in 'normal' people, these pathogens may be inducing an unpleasant, sub-optimal cognitive disposition. So, in most case, this virus will not lead to full mental illness, but may negatively effect someone's life and contentment. For example, my virus often produces chronic mild depression in people who contract it.

And the thing is, nobody will be aware that a pathogen is the cause, in the case of a milder mental change. Once you have slowly slipped into a depressed state, you will just assume that "life is bad", and will tend adopt a negative philosophy to match your depressed hedonic state created by the pathogen, rather than look for the precise cause of your depression. If you are lucky, you may find an anti-depression pharmaceutical that helps a little with your mental state (but this pill does not address the underlying cause, it just palliates the symptoms).

In fact, it may well be the case that most human beings exist in a mentally sub-optimal state - operating at a level much than less than their natural capability - simpy due to commonplace neurotrophic viruses such as Epstein-Barr, Human Herpes Six, Enterovirus, which we pick up usually in childhood, and which are found in around 90% of the population in the West (and approaching 100% in developing countries).

In other words, people that have full mental illness may just represent the extreme end of the range of possible effects due to these ubiquitous neurological viruses, with everyone else experiencing much milder effects which lower their natural mental abilities and unbalance their psyche only on a sub-clinical degree. In this way, existence becomes much less a joy than it has the potential to be.

In my opinion, the pernicious effect of neurological viruses to the whole of humanity should not be underestimated.

Humanity need to place a high priory on research into such pathogens, and devise systems to bring about their total elimination.

In discussing schizophrenia it must always be said that no two psychiatrists agree on what it is and schizophrenia is a highly suspect diagnosis, nonetheless, a local news channel presented a sensational fear based version of the cats cause schizophrenia story, though at the end they supply some very interesting information:

http://www.wsbtv.com/video/15189311/index.html

If you watch the video through at the end you see one of my cats' veternarians, one of the coolest guys on earth, Peter Muller explain that it turns out it is almost impossible for someone who comes in contact with cat feces to even be exposed to the toxiplamosa virus. Kittens are infected by Toxiplasmosa virus for only two weeks. It's more likely for exposure to be through meat. Why isn't the media pushing that concern? Why don't they clarify that it is impossible for an adult cat to carry the virus? Hmmm, beef lobby? What if the veterans didn't get schizophrenia from cat feces (how much cat feces do they really come into contact with in Iraq?) but instead from contaminated meat? Or of course maybe it's the brutality of war and what they really have is ptsd. If schizophrenia is a form of food poisoning does is that why so often it runs it course with no treatment (I know not all of the time but so often all pshrinks are surprised).

Thanks Hip for making me finally find the link the local news article. If schizophrenia, whatever it is, is caused by eating tainted beef that might partially explain why homeless people are "schizophrenic," after all I assume these are people who really do dumpster dive for at least some of their food, and why so many people find treating various "mental illnesses" with diet and nutrition.

I'm a Gulf War 1 vet and I've had Schizophrenia for 5 years. I was non-deployed. Must have been the Anthrax shot with the Squalene booster. The voices have many interesting things to say about having a synthetic in a person's blood stream. All the Sci-Fi tie-ins. If there are any others out there like me...shoot over an e-mail. Let's compare notes. state1theatre@gmail.com

Hmm,

I never had any positive or negitive symptoms before the USAF vacinated me with somthing from Texas A&M labeled "Texas A&M a-b 410". I have done some research on Anthrax and found they were developing a new vacine ABThrax. Not sure if this was a precidor to ABThrax. From what I can tell it works by blocking the action of the TFN-Alpha and IL1-Beta proteen's. Anthrax uses the protiens to invade the body. ABThrax is a genetic vacine designed to block the toxins created by Anthrax. I did some research on the twop protiens and found a PHD at A&M who wass researching cures for teburlocious in association with these protiens and genomes. Interestingly enough the IL1-Beta gene sequence on the 2nd cromozone is linked to schitzophrania. After receiving the shot, I developed all the symptoms of inhalition Anthrax, flu for a few days, felt better, then got worse and was hospitalized with 106 fever. They told me it was chemical phenomia cause by the baricks being painted. 8 years later I was diagnosed with Schitzo Affective disorder. Ironiclly enough I test (false positve) for teburlulosis. Never been exposed. I have sent the PHD an email asking him what the vaccine I received was.

I did voluniteer for somthing, they told me it was base clean up. I think it was the shot and then exposing me to low dose inhalition Anthrax.

If any one else want to email the PHD:
dmcmurray@tamu.edu