title: Psychopathology in first-episode schizophrenia and antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Environmental factors such as infectious agents may contribute to the psychopathology and aetiology of schizophrenia. Toxoplasma gondii (TG) is a candidate infectious agent as it is known to replicate within the human central nervous system and to alter behaviour in experimental animals.
  
  
  METHODS
  The relationship between antibodies to TG and psychopathological symptoms was examined in 34 first-episode patients with schizophrenia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results of regression analyses revealed that symptoms on admission, predictors of outcome, age and family history of psychiatric disease influenced the levels of antibodies to TG.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that TG infections may play a role in the clinical manifestation of psychopathology in a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Section of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, DE-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. silke_bachmann@med.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bachmann
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schröder
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bottmer
authors.forename: E F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Torrey
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Yolken
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000276:immunology; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000276:immunology*; D007075:Immunoglobulin M / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014122:Toxoplasma / Q000276:immunology*; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007075:Immunoglobulin M