Excerpt from review of my book and the one with Alan Brown, “Origins of Schizophrenia”, by Dolores Malaspina, a Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, just published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (169:998, September 2012):
“This pair of splendid books traces the effect of early-life exposures and genetics to the risk for later psychiatric disease. Both books convey the excitement of scientists who have found a bridge between many seemingly disparate risk factors to a parsimonious model for the origins of mental illness. Alan Brown, a tenacious epidemiological psychiatrist, and Paul Patterson, a benchtop developmental neurobiologist, clearly inspired each other’s scientific pursuits, and now they will inspire many readers with these two fine books. Brown and Patterson jointly edited The Origins of Schizophrenia, a compilation of excellent, independent chapters. Although somewhat technical for the average reader, it will be a treat for any past, current, or future scholar of schizophrenia or anyone interested in the early determinants of brain functioning. Patterson’s book, Infectious Behavior: Brain-Immune Connections in Autism, Schizophrenia, and Depression, will delight this audience as well. It pulls the reader through the rich and largely forgotten history linking infection and insanity, right up to emerging science on the overlap between the brain and the immune system. Patterson‘s book is so clear and compelling that it will appeal to clinicians awaiting novel disease models with new opportunities for prevention and cure, family members endlessly pondering the source of their loved one’s ailment, and any reader who enjoys medical detective stories.”
Infectious Behavior 
Very interesting blog you might like to look at these interviews which relate
Dr Bransfield – I think one way to think of it is, if you have chronic infection that adversely affects the brain it has different affects at different points in a person’s life.
If it affects fetal development we see developmental diseases and Autism.
If it is in middle life we see depression, anxiety and cognitive impairments.
If it is in early life and sometimes fetal it may show as psychosis like Bipolar or Schizophrenia.
If it is in later life it can be associated with Dementia.
But in all those cases what they have in common is there’s a provocation of the immune system and there’s close communication between the immune system and the nervous system.
Prof Nicolson – Stealth infections are in general bacterial but some cases viral infections, that can get inside and hide inside cells and they can’t be seen by the immune system
Dr Bransfield – Chronic persistent low grade infections
Prof Nicolson – The most common stealth infections related to Chronic Illnesses are number one Mycoplasma, Chlamydia Pneumonia, Borrelia Burgdorferi which is one of the causative components of Lyme Disease a complex illness involving not only Borrelia but Mycoplasma and other infections as well.
Dr Bransfield – Babesia comes up and certain viruses Herpes 1,2,6, Toxoplasmosis but there’s other infections that are not well identified and those are invariably as a group, these slow growing relapsing stealth infections that stay in the body in a low grade way and slowly impact and have affect over time.
Prof Nicolson – All these infections spread throughout the body and tend to end up in the central nervous system where they can cause tremendous damage. link to the video of interviews http://lookingatlyme.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/invisibly-ill.html
Check out Chris Carter’s website — http://www.polygenicpathways.co.uk. The page on pathogens and neuro diseases is very interesting.