The Root of the Problem

DOCTORS do not want to believe that mental illness is caused by infection.
That's [insert long string of curse words here] insane.

Here's a message from the Director of the NIMH.
 From Paresis to PANDAS & PANS

The idea that mental or behavioral disorders could be due to infection is, therefore, not new but it remains surprisingly difficult to accept. When I was in training in the 1970’s, peptic ulcer disease was the prototype of a “biopsychosocial” disorder, with stress and a Type A personality considered the causes and psychodynamic therapy recommended as the treatment. Although helicobacter pylori was identified as the cause of peptic ulcer disease by Australians Robin Warren and Barry Marshall in the 1980’s, there was very little awareness (within the mental health community) that the disorder could be cured with antibiotics until Warren and Marshall received the Nobel Prize in 2005.

 The book on Rheumatic fever that I am reading makes clear that the mental symptoms of strep have been documented for over a century.  You can be sure I have plenty more to say about that.