Abstract
The attempt to transmit disease to animals is one approach to a viral etiology of human disease. This strategy has been crucial for understanding kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, where the causative agent has not otherwise been identified (Gajdusek et al., 1966; Gibbs et al., 1968). Demonstration of transmission depended not only on signs of illness but also on the presence and similarity of the neuropathological changes found in patients and animals (Beck and Daniel, 1979). In the functional psychoses, this approach is limited by the lack of undisputed neuropathology. We have, therefore, used behavior as a dependent variable in our search for a transmissible agent in the cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients, whereas in our studies of the transmissible dementias (Gerstmann-Straussler syndrome and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), we have relied on neuropathological evidence of transmission.
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Ridley, R.M., Baker, H.F., Crow, T.J. (1987). Transmission Studies of Psychiatric and Neurological Disease. In: Kurstak, E., Lipowski, Z.J., Morozov, P.V. (eds) Viruses, Immunity, and Mental Disorders. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1799-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1799-9_3
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