In a study prompted in part by suggestions from people with mental illness, Johns Hopkins researchers found that a history of Candida yeast infections was more common in a group of men with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder than in those without these disorders.
They also found women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who tested positive for Candida performed worse on a standard memory test than women with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who had no evidence of past infection.
The researchers caution that their findings, described online on May 4 in npj Schizophrenia—a new publication from Nature Publishing Group—do not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between mental illness and yeast infections but may support a more detailed examination into the role of lifestyle, immune system weaknesses, and gut-brain connections as contributing factors to the risk of psychiatric disorders and memory impairment.
