This Is The Best Information Resource of My Entire Life. And I have been looking for a very long time.
Special Commendation Award from the blog to Harriet Washington for writing this book:
Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We "Catch" Mental Illness
I have read it now, and the author has done an excellent job. It might be a little technical for some people, but I have a hard time judging. I am too familiar with the subject matter. She does give personal stories of both patients and researchers though, I appreciated that. She also gives historical and global context- I especially liked the the concept of Nervios- a temporary illness of the nerves-as opposed to Schizophrenia, a permanent condition.
She starts with well documented microbes that cause mental illness and works her way to the newer research.
Not only does she cover the Streptococcal induced behavior disorders, she actually discusses some of the unintended consequences of antibiotics on the intestinal microbes... and even endotoxin! She puts them in a context of chronic illnesses with long latency periods, too. I am impressed.
My only disappointment is that the author doesn't know about orexin, and therefore is missing a crucial part of the infection-cognition connection. She tangents slightly into the possibility of "psychologically induced" symptoms that, in my opinion, could mostly be explained by orexin pathways.
Nonetheless, you must read it. Even if you only read one thing next year, make sure it is this book. This is the future of medicine.
And our best hope for a safe and sane tomorrow.
Read some medical history so you are not doomed to learn the hard way.
(Bonus points for the index and a bibliofilial shout-out to the OCD person who indexed it...)
