That's a 1977 article, eons ago in terms of medical research. Schizophrenia research has since advanced far beyond RA and prostoglandin. The latest flavor of the month pins the blame on pathogens.
Actually, this time, the flavor of the month seems to have some staying power: The latest thinking is that schizophrenia may be linked to MS and bipolar disorder, and that the culprit is HERV-W, a retrovirus which entered our DNA 60 million years ago, when human being were lemur-like mammals. Infections trigger HERV-W to awaken shortly before or after birth: properly activated, the new born now has a death sentence and a destiny with either schizophrenia, MS or BD.
Some of you may laugh but the retrovirus theory explains the frequence of schizophrenics being born in colder months. Well, guess what, the same thing happens in MS and BD. Whether you contract schizophrenia, MS or bipolar disorder may depend on the state of your immune system, which is weakend in colder months. Again, no brainer since those with autoimmune problems know that the gut and the brain seem to be tightly linked when it comes to moods, even psychosis.
Read more about it here. It's a detective story. And someone who cracks the schizophrenia puzzle will be a health detective, not someone at the treatment end clueless and unaware of the role of infections in kickstarting just about every disease there is. PHD seems to be right -- infections cause not only chronic and degenerative diseases but other, even mental, illnesses as well.
