Viral infection and psychiatric disorders.

A psychiatric population of 94 inpatients and 12 outpatients was investigated on referral to a psychiatric unit in a general hospital for serum antibody titres to several viruses by a complement fixation technique. Of the total population studied, only eight were considered to have antibody titres of possible significance. This result would appear to indicate that viral infection does not play a major part in the causation or precipitation of psychiatric disorders.