A cheap antibiotic normally prescribed to teenagers for acne is to be tested as a treatment to alleviate the symptoms of psychosis in patients with schizophrenia, in a trial that could advance scientific understanding of the causes of mental illness.
The National Institute for Health Research is funding a £1.9m trial of minocycline, which will begin recruiting patients in the UK next month. The research follows case reports from Japan in which the drug was prescribed to patients with schizophrenia who had infections and led to dramatic improvements in their psychotic symptoms.
I seem to remember a psychatrist or psychologist of the 60’s opining that all mental illness would be found to be physical and the result of bacteria. My memory banks refuse to give up the person’s name.
Well, Plugger201, try taking some amoxicillin and see if your memory improves. 🙂
There are recent well-documented cases of kids developing marked OCD symptoms which responded to treatment of Strep.
I pray this will turn out to be accurate. It would be one of the most wonderful discoveries of a lifetime.
I do know that Tourettes syndrome often improves with antibiotics. Some folks think it is a form of Syndenham’s chorea (due to the strep bacteria).