Schizophrenia caused by infection?

[kerry]

Just ran across this. Wasn't aware of it before. Very interesting research.

The Insanity Virus | DiscoverMagazine.com

[chilcutt]

Happened to one of my brothers.
May he rest in peace.

[INSIDIOUS]

I was not infected.


yes you were.

no you weren't!!

leave us out of it !!

[pj67coll]

Interesting. My suspicion is that these guys are on the right track. All mental illness is eventually going to be traced to brain malfunction of one sort or another. Interesting that some of it could be a pre-historic virus.

- Peter.

[kerry]

The pre-historic part is fascinating. The species without schizophrenia would have been quite different. A number of people have noticed the connection between schizophrenia and religion. It would be ironic if important parts of religion turned out to be the results of a literal infection.

[barry12345]

More likely a dormant gene. All too common is the case of a person becoming manic depressive or bipolar after a triggering event.

I am personally aware of one case where the guy was normal. Until he was involved in a fire while working on his lawnmower in a shed. Another where the person sustained a blow to the head.

The onset of the disorder was very rapid after those two events for both. Some mental disorders show precursors as well indicating the gene is becoming active. The result is an unbalance in the brains chemistry. My own suspicion is that it is not the original cause but just the result.

These disorders in general almost have to be genetic or the genetic factors have to be present. For example if either one of the parents is ill it can appear in the children as well is pretty well known.

I feel really sorry for people living with disorders of this magnitude. Hopefully like cancer there may be a cure someday.

I became a believer of the absolute power of certain genetic traits long ago. Working with children that had no natural parential exposure. Some of them had the exact disorders as one of their parents.

Societies problems are people with behavior disorders and genetic ones of certain types outbreed their normal contemporaries for a couple of reasons.

They usually have little responsibility as part of their inherent character. They also appear quite exciting to the opposite sex. By the time their opposite normal person smartens up there are children produced. They hopefully find earlier in some cases . That there is no substance behind the exciting façade.. They also tend to repeat the pattern several times at least in their lifetimes.

Certain disorders of a behavioural nature are becoming almost endemic in society as time goes by. Perhaps an indication that some genetics effects where controllable by the individual in the past but now there are so many of them they find mutual support in a way.

One on my tests for positive adhd presence in a child was to take a child with positive indicators and let them play with the suspect child for a few minutes. If they fed of each other mentally and escalated their behaviours the suspect one was almost certainly adhd as well.

The normal child or even the abnormal child without strong adhd tendancies will automatically not submerge their behaviors with and in concert with the other.

Add is a lot harder as their are so many sub strains. Still you will usually find traits of it in the parents as well. So we are back to genetic components. All trails seem to lead there usually.

So if one is well inside the normal paremeters of reasonable mental health. They should just be thankful. It is not a matter of choice in my mind.

For some reason high intelligence also is a risk factor to develop issues in life of a mental health nature. Perhaps the whole human race has genes that in most will never emerge or become dominate. While others genetically have no defence against them.

It of course is not beyond the possibility that a virus or infection might cause an otherwise dormant gene into action.

One differentiation I make is a sciocipathic type personalities in my mind are not a mental disease. It seems to me instead that many parts of their normal character traits beyond what we learn are unable to function in those individuals. Although it could also be some genes that should be active just are not in those individuals. Perhaps the result of incompatable gene mixing between two people.

An illustration for example is our dog is naturally pretty gentle and thoughtful. Another dog may not be trustworthy at all and is a constant risk. Either dog could have been raised in the same environment. So the temperament pretty much has to be by genetic predisposition.

[kerry]

The piece argues that stress, by reducing the effectiveness of the immune system, creates the opportunity for the onset of the disease.

[pj67coll]

Originally Posted by kerry

The piece argues that stress, by reducing the effectiveness of the immune system, creates the opportunity for the onset of the disease.

But if I understand it correctly thats after a virus has caused trouble in-utero.

- Peter.

[kerry]

Originally Posted by pj67coll

But if I understand it correctly thats after a virus has caused trouble in-utero.

- Peter.

Yes, that's what I took it to be saying, or possibly contracting a virus shortly after birth.

[barry12345]

Nobody is very certain of anything in this area. Stress at levels we are unaccustomed to can certainly trigger bad mental senarios . Most are not perrmanent though.

Also if this occurs with an individual you will usually find problems in some of their ancestors. That is why I consider at least a few of the serious mental issues to be genetic in nature.

The stress seems to activate a latent gene. It may even be just chemical predisposition as well.

Whatever once turned on it seems impossible to truly reverse.

If man survives long enough on this planet. My guess is at some point a treatment will be found that keeps the problem genes suppressed in a much stronger way. Partial treatment with drugs today attempts to block the chemical changes primarily instead of the root causes.

A simple guy like myself wonders about a lot of things. For example is a persons conscience a learnt behavior or genetic predisposition? I tend to feel it is a combination of both. Although if the genetic pre disposition is not there you cannot develop or have one. strength of the genetic component varies as well.

Many things I just cannot do are totally inhibited by my conscience. What makes this factor so strong in some? I am well aware that if a person has a strong conscience that others are well aware of it. So in reality we may subconsciously probe other people to find the functional level of theirs.

I found in business it is mandatory to avoid bad situations over the years.

Schizophrenia is about as close to a living nightmare as I can imagine. From what I have observed over the years there may be a long period of evident problems that indicate it may become an issue later with adolecents. It is not unreasonable that a virus can modify or damage genes as well. I still feel that research in this field overall is still at an early stage.