No changes in paired viral antibody titers during the course of acute schizophrenia

Abstract

Although there have been many studies surveying the prevalence of specific viral antibodies in a large cohort of patients with schizophrenia, changes in antibody levels during the course of acute illness have not been fully investigated. We conducted a preliminary study investigating levels of antibodies to 5 herpesviruses (herpes simplex virus type 1, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, varicella-zoster virus and human herpesvirus type 6) and 6 other viruses (measles, rubella, mumps, influenza A and B and Japanese encephalitis viruses) in paired sera of 8 patients with acute onset or exacerbation of schizophrenia. Assay for specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody was also performed for herpesviruses and mumps. Neither any relevant change in antibody levels nor appearance of specific IgM antibody was observed for any of the viruses in any of the patients investigated. It is unlikely that the active infection or reactivation of these viruses has direct causal relationship to schizophrenia in these patients.