Building Bridges Between Infectious Disease Physicians and Psychiatrists

Complex problems require complex solutions with interdisciplinary cooperation.
When state mental hospitals were filled with mentally ill patients who
had syphilis, everyone recognized the close association between
infectious disease and psychiatric illness. In fact, in 1927, the first
Nobel prize in Psychiatry was awarded to Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg who
recognized the association between infections and mental illness and
introduced malaria inoculation, which proved to be very successful in
treating dementia paralytica. After the introduction of penicillin, the
gap between these two specialties widened with specialization and
fragmentation in medicine resulting in few physicians maintaining
updated capability in both infectious disease and psychiatry. Most
infectious disease physicians have very little current training in
neurochemistry, psychoimmunology, or the pathophysiology of mental
illness. Likewise, many psychiatrists have little current training in
infectious diseases and psychoimmunology.

More recently, this gap has been bridged by advances in evolutionary
medicine, a growing recognition of the significance of the microbiome,
improved brain imaging and testing capabilities and discoveries in
psychoimmunology which have greatly expanded our knowledge of the
pathophysiology of mental illness. Now, many, including the Center for
Disease and Prevention recognize chronic diseases and the mental
illnesses can stem from infectious agents.