Retroviruses and schizophrenia in Jamaica.
Reports of an 18-fold higher incidence of schizophrenia among second-generation Afro-Caribbeans, and especially Jamaican migrants in the United Kingdom were soon called "an epidemic of schizophrenia," with the inference that a novel virus, likely to be perinatally transmitted, was a possible etiological agent. This intriguing observation led us to explore a possible link with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type one (HTLV-I), because it is a virus that is endemic in the Caribbean Island, is perinatally transmitted, known to be neuropathogenic, and the cause of a chronic myelopathy (tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I associated myelopathy. We therefore examined inpatients as the Bellevue Mental Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica and did standard serological tests for retroviruses HTLV-I and HTLV-II and HIV-I and HIV-II on 201 inpatients who fulfilled ICD-9 and DSM III-R criteria for schizophrenia. Our results produced important negative data, since the seropositivity rates for HTLV-I, the most likely pathogen, were no greater than the seropositivity range for HTLV-I carriers in this island population, indicating the HTLV-1 and the other retroviruses tested do not play a primary etiological role in Jamaican schizophrenics.
Rodgers-Johnson
P E
PE
Department of Medicine, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.
Hickling
F W
FW
Irons
A
A
Johnson
B K
BK
Irons-Morgan
M
M
Stone
G A
GA
Gibbs
C J
CJ
D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015498:HIV-2 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D015994:Incidence; D007563:Jamaica / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D012923:Social Class; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G