Schizophrenia May Be an Autoimmune Condition

Schizophrenia affects 20 million people worldwide, and we don’t exactly know how it develops, or what causes it yet. However, some research has found that it might be an autoimmune condition.

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[grannykiminalaska]

My family is filthy with autoimmune diseases. This could explain my sister's schitzophrenia. 😔

[allisond.]

"We don't know what it is, and we don't know what's causing it."
Welcome to the world of mental health.

[LAChantrose]

Wow. My daughter is Schizoaffective, and she was recently diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder (we think it may be RA, we're going to the rheumatologist soon). This is eye opening.

[thesuccessfulone]

Depression also is tied to inflammation in the brain. Maybe the neurodegeneration of various parts also link to brain inflammation

[yulebones]

This is an incredible paradigm shift and gives me hope for so many disorders.

[doctor_owl]

This is really fascinating!! As someone with multiple autoimmune conditions, I'm glad modern medicine is continuing to look into these factors. The immune system is complicated, and we barely understand how the human brain even works, so I wouldn't be surprised.

I have narcolepsy and a few recent studies have hypothesized that it may actually be an autoimmune condition. I caught H1N1 when I was 16yrs old and got extremely sick. Almost immediately afterwards, I suddenly developed GI symptoms. A few weeks and a few tests later, I was diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis (a type of IBD similar to chrons disease). Nobody else in my family has any autoimmune conditions.

I've spent the last decade battling chronic illness and ended up having multiple major surgeries since the meds didn't work. My narcolepsy symptoms started in childhood but I wasn't diagnosed until a few years ago. My GI doctor is the one who first told me the theory that infections can trigger autoimmune conditions. Many systems in the body are connected in ways we don't fully understand!

[skyla]

This is an extremely important topic. I have some minor inflammatory issues currently affecting my skin, but my mother has schizophrenia. I always wondered in inflammation and immune issues played a part.

[grauekatze]

I really like Anthony's clear and calm way of speaking.

[nariutimes]

Now we need the US medical system to keep up. My friend has such a hard time getting consistent treatment ...

[mschrisfrank]

My great-uncle had paranoid schizophrenia, and there are autoimmune diseases all over that side of my family—ulcerative colitis, lupus, etc.

[breyjames]

This is a little bit of a weird story but hear me out. A little back knowledge to begin, my mother has her bachelors degree in biology, so she is educated to make an intelligent hypothesis. Continuing on, I had an ex bf whose step father suddenly had extreme behavior changes and schizophrenic like symptoms. Well their house was covered in house cat excretions and bodily fluids. One of the cats was really weird and my mom had the idea that the step fathers behavior changes were related to the state of the house because of toxoplasmosis, which is spread through cat feces. Toxoplasmosis can cause psychological symptoms. And that's how this relates to this video, that schizophrenic symptoms could be caused by an autoimmune response to some bacteria/infection or virus, or parasite.

[krush]

As a schizophrenic, I just like that one thing is said and I wish it would be acknowledged more. Schizophrenia treatments reduce symptoms it doesn't stop them. Its a treatment not a cure. I still hear and see things I know aren't there and I'm on a heavy medication regiment. People think the pills make them go away, but it, for me at least, just makes them more manageable.

[bulkeh]

This is very interesting to me. I had a client who has psoriasis in addition to schizophrenia and both seemed to flare up at the same time.

[maxinealexander]

I read an article in MIT's magazine saying that it's because microglia, which sort of "clean up" unused neurons and act like janitors for the brain, are "cleaning up" pathways in the brain that they shouldn't. They spoke of how the cause was likely genetic. And they spoke about how they couldn't just remove microglia because, besides the necessary cleaning not being performed, they secrete an enzyme that neuronal tissue can't function without. It was quite fascinating and has stuck with me for years. I had to have read it around 4 years ago.

[fredworthmn]

Been dealing with memories of a person with this condition for about a week. Back in the 60's and 70's these things were considered character weaknesses and people were locked up and shunned like this lady I was trying to remember. Those who have this condition today can function in society with the meds and for most sufferers they get along adequately.
Sadly, when I did remember her name and her brothers name, they had both died within the last 2 years. The lady was never able to live on her own because of this condition. Maybe the insight in this video would have helped her!

[ericacook]

Working nights in a mental health facility, I'll say the most common thing I see between patients with the traits associated with schizophrenia is sleep disruption, or lack of sleep. Once people have come in, it's not uncommon for them to have been up for over a week without ever even trying to sleep. We'll get people who insist that they need no more than 2 hours of sleep a day, and will do everything to fight going to sleep. This isn't 100%, but usually when people do not benefit from sleep while showing signs of schizophrenia they wind up having bipolar disorder. I believe we will not get a proper grasp of what's going on with patients who present symptoms of schizophrenia until we explore the correlation between it and sleep disruption. It could be autoimmune, it could be a development in utero, but all of it has something to do with sleep. We have patients who fit the schizoaffective guidelines who will be at our facility for days, weeks, even months, without ever sleeping more than 3 hours a day. We've had patients who have never slept more than a half hour a day. The brain is not designed to function like that. Every single one of them insist that they don't need to sleep.

[GrimIkatsui]

Growing up I used to worry I might develop schizophrenia. Instead I got multiple sclerosis, an auto-immune disease that attacks the brain and spine. I've had some minor hallucinations and delusions as a result and I often wondered how different it really was from schizophrenia. Apparently not much.

[ThatQatPerson]

I wish medical science would stop treating psyche like it isn't part of the large organ in our heads. If an auto-immune disease can cause my type 1 diabetes, psoriasis and lupus then why couldn't it do the same to the brain?

[stanburton]

I hypothesize that schizophrenia isnt a single disease, but may be a group of diseases that result in similar symptoms, but with different causes. Which would help explain the rule of thirds.

[cellogirlrw]

I have Bipolar Disorder, and I also have an autoimmune disorder, called Hashimoto's Disease, which I inherited from my mother, who also has postpartum depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder. Makes me wonder. . .