[Depression and Herpex simplex infections]

It has been mentioned that herpes simplex antibodies are increased in depressed patients. In the present study, serums from 21 patients with reactive depressions, nine with psychotic depression, 33 schizophrenic and 15 normal controls were studied, and herpes simplex antibodies were measured. Neither was statistically significant difference found between any of the groups nor could antibody titres be correlated with severity of depression measured by a psychiatric rating scale. The authors review the pertinent literature, and state that although antibody tires do not correlated with psychiatric diagnosis, there still exists the possibility that latent brain viral infections might trigger depressive episodes in some cases.