Psyche and immunity
A link between autoimmune diseases and psychoses has been found
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
The largest meta-study showed that people whose immunity "got out of control" and began to attack their own cells of the body are more likely to develop psychosis – a disorder of perception and behavior. Scientists write about this in an article published in the journal Biological Psychiatry (Cullen et al., Associations Between Non-Neurological Autoimmune Disorders and Psychosis: A Meta-Analysis).
Until now, data on a possible link between autoimmune diseases and psychoses have remained contradictory. Some studies have shown that people with psychosis develop rheumatoid arthritis less often, others – that psychosis often occurs in patients with celiac disease. On the one hand, this indicates a very likely connection between them; on the other, the connection remains confusing. Therefore, Alexis Cullen and his colleagues from King's College London conducted a meta-analysis, statistically summarizing the data of the mass of previously done work.
In total, scientists reviewed 30 studies with a combined sample of about 25 million people, the authors of which tried to find a link between psychoses and autoimmune diseases of a non–neurological nature that do not directly affect the brain, such as, for example, type I diabetes. At the same time, rheumatoid arthritis was excluded from consideration. The work showed that in such patients, the risk of developing psychotic disorders – including schizophrenia – increases by as much as 40 percent.
At the second stage of the work, the scientists examined autoimmune diseases separately. It was found that the risk of psychosis really increases in patients with psoriasis, celiac disease, Basal disease, dermatological pemphigoids. On the other hand, with Bekhterev's disease and the same rheumatoid arthritis, the risk of psychosis, on the contrary, decreases.
Apparently, the relationship between these and other diseases is not so simple and cannot be explained by the action of chronic inflammation, which is characteristic of all autoimmune disorders. Perhaps it is due to the peculiarities of heredity, which can affect a person's predisposition to both autoimmune and psychotic disorders.
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