Psychiatry and Biological Factors, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1991

The main purpose of the volume Psychiatry and Biological Factors is to provide a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the current research linked essentially to virus infections, immunity functions, and mental diseases. In recent years substantial advances have been registered in the physiopathol­ ogy of mental and neurological disorders. As a result, partial control of certain psychoses, anxiety syndromes, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease is now possible. However, despite progress in biomedical research, numerous mental and neuro­ logical disorders afflict up to 15% of all individuals and little is known about the causes, prevention, and treatment of these diseases. Several epidemiological investigations demonstrated a high prevalence of functional psychoses and organic mental disorders, and recent data show that biological components appear as a major etiologic factor. In this respect it could be stressed that viral and immunologic hypotheses should be investigated seriously and systematically in relation to the mechanisms of several mental and neurologi­ cal diseases. Neuropsychiatric consequences of AIDS related to human immunodeficiency virus infection are now well documented. A variety of behavioral. symptoms and psychiatric syndromes with paranoid features are frequent concomitants of AIDS.

I Mental Pathology and Virogene Theory.- 1 The Virogene Hypothesis of Psychosis: Current Status.- 2 A Virus-Associated Immunopathological Theory of Schizophrenia.- 3 Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 DNA in Human Brain Tissue: Any Association with Mental Disease?.- 4 Genetic Sequences of Influenza Virus in Children with Congenital CNS Pathology.- 5 Prognostic Markers of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Associated Neurologic Symptoms in Patients with AIDS.- II Virological and Immunological Study of Schizophrenia.- 6 Prenatal Viral Infection as an Etiological Agent in Adult Schizophrenia: Evidence for Two Models.- 7 An Influenza Epidemic and the Seasonality of Schizophrenic Births.- 8 Virological and Immunological Study of Schizophrenic Patients in Relation to CT Scan Abnormality.- 9 Viral Persistence and Immune Impairment in Schizophrenia.- 10 Molecular Genetic Studies of Human Cytomegalovirus in Schizophrenia.- 11 New Experimental Approaches Examining a Viral Etiology of Schizophrenia.- 12 Lymphocyte Subsets in Schizophrenic Patients.- 13 Immunological Studies in Schizophrenia: Critical Analysis of Data Obtained.- 14 Diagnostic Criteria for Selection of Schizophrenic Patients in the Study of Biological Markers.- III Immunomodulators and Psychiatric Disorders.- 15 Interferon in Schizophrenia.- 16 Interferon Production in Acute Psychiatric Disorders.- 17 Interferon and Immunoglobulin G as Immunologic Markers in Chronic Schizophrenia.- 18 Immune Modulation in Major Depressive Patients in Remission.- 19 Lymphokine-Activated Killer (LAK) Cell Activity in Psychiatric Illness.- 20 Immunity, Cortisol, and Psychiatric Disorders.- IV Viral Fatigue Syndrome and Antivirals.- 21 Viruses and Fatigue: The Current Status of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.- 22 The Suppression of Recurrent Herpes Simplex Virus Infections with Lithium Carbonate.- 23 Suppressive Effect of Alcohol on Normal Lymphocyte Proliferative Response to HIV Antigens.- V Animal Models in Virus Neuropathology.- 24 Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Transcription during Latent Infections of Mouse and Man: Implications for Dementia.- 25 Effects of Stress on a Murine Neurotropic Retrovirus Infection.- 26 The Effect of Cold or Isolation Stress on Neuroinvasiveness and Neurovirulence of an Avirulent Variant of West Nile Virus (WN-25).