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 possib...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular and chemical neuropathology 1996-05, Vol.28 (1-3), p.237-243
Main Authors: Rodgers-Johnson, P E, Hickling, F W, Irons, A, Johnson, B K, Irons-Morgan, M, Stone, G A, Gibbs, Jr, C J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
AIDS/HIV
Antibodies, Viral - blood
Female
HIV-1 - isolation & purification
HIV-2 - isolation & purification
Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 - isolation & purification
Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 - isolation & purification
Humans
Immunoglobulin G - blood
Incidence
Jamaica - epidemiology
Jamaica - ethnology
Male
Middle Aged
Retroviridae - isolation & purification
Schizophrenia - epidemiology
Schizophrenia - virology
Social Class
United Kingdom - epidemiology
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1044-7393
DOI:10.1007/BF02815228