Call for psychosis treatment overhaul after evidence of autoimmune trigger

‘It would be the first time in the whole of psychiatry that we have a diagnosis and a cause for why people develop severe mental illness,’ said Prof Belinda Lennox. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

One of the UK’s leading psychiatrists is calling for an overhaul of the diagnosis and treatment of psychotic disorders following evidence that a small but significant fraction of cases could be triggered by an autoimmune response.

Speaking before the relaunch of a groundbreaking trial in which psychosis patients are being treated with medicines normally reserved for autoimmune conditions such as arthritis and lupus, Prof Belinda Lennox, the head of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, said she hoped the work would pave the way for new, more targeted approaches to treating conditions such as schizophrenia. This could include some patients being given immunotherapies to treat psychotic symptoms.