Little is known about the etiology of psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and psychosis. Though patients show immunological abnormalities.
New research findings explain the pathogenesis of psychiatric symptoms by the interaction between stress, cytokines, the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal axis, autoimmunity, and the brain.
Neuroinflammation and peripheral immune dysregulation play a role in bipolar disorder.
Neuroinflammation is the result of an immune response in the Central Nervous System (CNS) that involves a complex interaction between the CNS innate immune system, the blood–brain barrier (serves to protect the brain from most pathogens) and the peripheral immune system (all immune responses that take place outside the brain).
Because the brain can be affected by various autoimmune processes, it is possible that some psychiatric disorders have an autoimmune basis.
