Inflaming inflammation and psychiatry
The systematic review
published by Mitchell & Goldstein [1] kinda says it all when it comes to our current view of the topic of inflammation and psychiatry, and in particular inflammation and neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): "
There is preliminary evidence for elevated markers of inflammation in this population".
I've talked quite a bit on this blog about how, as strange as it might seem, heightened
inflammation and inflammatory processes/markers do seem to be over-represented in a fair few diagnoses with a neuropsychiatric element to them (
see here and
see here for example). Granted, one has to be careful not to over-generalise to an entire population (remember:
autisms not autism) and the chicken-and-egg question of which came first inflammation or condition still hangs over this 'association.' But the realisation that
inflammatory processes may link immune function to behavioural presentation [2] is not to be sniffed at...
