Viral and immune-mediated factors in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disease

The available data supporting a viral or immune mediated etiology of psychiatric disease is indirect and controversial, but there is a sufficient evidence to implicate such a process in a subgroup of the psychiatric population. Recent technological advances in neurovirology and neuroimmunology justify a re-assessment of this etiology in psychiatric disease. The author describes three patients with psychiatric symptomatolgy and cerebrospinal changes compatible with such a process. The evidence supporting a role for viral or immunological factors in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disease is reviewed, and guidelines for future research which could be of use in further clarifying this issue are proposed.