RETROVIRUSES AND SCHIZOPHRENIA IN JAMAICA

Reports of an 18-fold higher incidence of schizophrenia among second-g eneration Afro-Caribbeans, and especially Jamaican migrants in the Uni ted Kingdom were soon called ''an epidemic of schizophrenia,'' with th e inference that a novel virus, likely to be perinatally transmitted, was a possible etiological agent. This intriguing observation led us t o explore a possible link with human T-cell lymphotropic virus type on e (HTLV-I), because it is a virus that is endemic in the Caribbean Isl ands, is perinatally transmitted, known to be neuropathogenic, and the cause of a chronic myelopathy (tropical spastic paraparesis/ HTLV-I a ssociated myelopathy). We therefore examined inpatients at the Bellevu e Mental Hospital, Kingston, Jamaica and did standard serological test s for retroviruses HTLV-I and HTLV-II and HIV-I and HIV-II on 201 inpa tients who fulfilled ICD-9 and DSM III-R criteria for schizophrenia. O ur results produced important negative data, since the seropositivity rates for HTLV-I, the most likely pathogen, were no greater than the s eropositivity range for HTLV-I carriers in this island population indi cating that HTLV-I and the other retroviruses tested do not play a pri mary etiological role in Jamaican schizophrenics.