There is a link between the Candida fungus — one of the most common types of yeast in the body — and schizophrenia in men and memory impairment in mentally ill women, according to a new study published in Nature Partner Journals.
Galvanized by emergent evidence suggesting schizophrenia could be related to immune system issues, researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore collected blood samples from 808 people between the ages of 18 and 65. Among them were 277 controls with no history of mental illness, 261 participants with schizophrenia and 270 people diagnosed as bipolar. Researchers were able to determine whether or not participants had previously incurred Candida infections by quantifying the amount of Candida antibodies found in the blood. After adjusting for factors that could skew results, researchers sought to establish patterns between mental illness and infection rates.
In examination of the participant group as a whole, the research team found no significant link between the presence of Candida antibodies and mental illness. But when the team looked only at men, they discovered that 26 percent of those diagnosed with schizophrenia carried the fungal antibodies, while the antibodies were found in only 14 percent of the control males.
"It's far too early to single out Candida infection as a cause of mental illness or vice versa," said Emily Severance, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics and member of the Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "However, most Candida infections can be treated in their early stages, and clinicians should make it a point to look out for these infections in their patients with mental illness."
Researchers also administered a skills test to both men and women to determine the potential effects of Candida infections on neurological response. The researchers found that women with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with a history of Candida infection had lower scores on the memory portions of the test compared to women whose blood samples exhibited no prior infection. Women with prior infections scored, on average, 11 points lower on the memory portion of the test than their control counterparts.
"Although we cannot demonstrate a direct link between Candida infection and physiological brain processes, our data show that some factor associated with Candida infection, and possibly the organism itself, plays a role in affecting the memory of women with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and this is an avenue that needs to be further explored," said Dr. Severance.
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