Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T07:57:59.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Manic Depressive Psychosis: Some New Aetiological Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

P. R. J. Burch*
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Environmental Radiation Research Unit, and Department of Medical Physics, The University of Leeds; The General Infirmary, Leeds, I

Extract

My purpose in this article is to draw attention to certain statistical features of manic depressive psychosis and to inquire into their possible aetiological significance.

I shall show that some of these statistical characteristics are very similar to comparable aspects of diseases that are widely considered to be autoimmune. Although it does not follow than manic depressive psychosis is an auto immune disorder, the parallels and coincidences are perhaps sufficiently striking to warrant further investigation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1964 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burch, P. R. J. (1962). “A biological principle and its converse: some implications for carcinogenesis.” Nature, Land., 195, 241243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. (1963a). “Autoimmunity: some aetiological aspects. Inflammatory polyarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.” Lancet, i, 12531257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. (1963b). “Mutation, autoimmunity and ageing.” Ibid, ii, 299300.Google Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. (1963c). “A genetic theory of inflammatory polyarthritis.” Ibid, ii, 636637.Google Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. and Rowell, N. R. (1963). “Autoimmunity. Aetiological aspects of chronic discoid and systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Some immunological implications.” Ibid., ii, 507513 Google Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. and Burwell, R. G. (1963). “Lyonisation of the X chromosome.” Lancet, ii, 943944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnet, F. M. (1959a). The Clonal Selection Theory of Acquired Immunity. London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. (1959b). “Autoimmune disease. I. Modern immunological concepts.” Brit. med. J., ii, 645650, ii, 720725.Google Scholar
Burch, P. R. J. and Mackay, I. R. (1962). “Lymphoepithelial structures and autoimmune disease.” Lancet, ii, 10301033.Google Scholar
Green, I., and Sperber, R. J. (1962). “Hypogammaglobulinemia, arthritis, sprue and megaloblastic anemia.” New York State J. Med., 62, 16791686.Google Scholar
Kallmann, F. J. (1953). Heredity in Health and Mental Disorder. London: Chapman and Hall Ltd.Google Scholar
Kallmann, F. J. (1959). “Genetics of mental illness”, in American Handbook of Psychiatry (ed. Arieti, ). New York: Basic Books Inc.Google Scholar
Lyon, M. F. (1961). “Gene action in the X-chromosome of the mouse (Mus musculus L).” Nature, Land., 190, 372373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, I. R., and deGail, P. (1963). “Thymic ‘germinal centres’ and plasma cells in systemic lupus erythematosus.” Lancet, ii, 667668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malzberg, B. (1955). “Age and sex in relation to mental diseases.” Mental Hygiene, 39, 196224.Google Scholar
Richardson, J. (1963). Connective Tissue Disorders. Oxford.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.