Antibody- and Cell-Mediated Immunity to Herpes Simplex and Epstein—Barr Viruses in Psychotic Patients

The search for a possible viral etiology of mental illnesses gained momentum in the last decade with the important discoveries of viruses and viruslike infectious agents in slow progressing encephalopathies and diseases of the central nervous system. In addition, case reports accumulated in the medical literature that described and pointed to temporal or antecedent association between infectious diseases, in particular herpes and infectious mononucleosis, and psychotic manifestations (Shearer and Finch, 1964; Gotlieb-Stematsky and Glaser, 1982). Special interest was directed towards the understanding of factors implicated in schizophrenia (Torrey and Peterson, 1974; Rimon, 1983). Efforts at correlating serological parameters pointing to viral infections associated with mental diseases were carried out by Rimon and Halonen (1969), who were the first to demonstrate elevated herpes simplex virus (HSV) antibodies in patients with depressive illnesses. Rising antibody titers to HSV were found by Cleobury et al. 1971) in aggressive psychopaths, and high antibody titers to HSV and cytomegalovirus (CMV) were demonstrated by Lycke et al. (1974) in hospitalized depressive psychosis patients. Moreover, cell-mediated immunity (CMI) to HSV, investigated by Cappel et al. (1978) in psychotic depression, was found similar to that observed after acute HSV infection or recurrence. On the other hand, antibodies to HSV were not found significantly higher in hospitalized psychiatric children than in normal ones (Jorgensen et al., 1982).