Schizophrenia like autism is not something to pin down to any one cause. The symptoms are like an equation and the defects are the values which cause the expres

Schizophrenia like autism is not something to pin down to any one cause. The symptoms are like an equation and the defects are the values which cause the expression of the disease/satisfy the equation/describe the surface. There are many genes that are culprit to the disease as well a number of environmental factors, so it is possible that parasites may induce the symptoms for certain (possibly less robust) phenotypes. But it does not mean that the disease is caused by parasites any more than a plane can be a point. One hypothesis I read recently is that schizophrenia is an emergent phenomenon of a brain trying to compensate for any number of gene induced deficiencies in wiring but instead over compensating due in part to the faulty wiring in the first place, thus creating a negative feedback loop as the brain develops and wires itself. Again on connectivity errors, schizophrenia is also associated with a malfunction in how the default mode and task positive networks interact with each other, where in schizo, default is not properly attenuated leading to higher likelihood of dissociativity. I read recently on using ketamine to study this particular malfunction: see http://www.schizophreniaforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=1809 http://www.schizophreniaforum.org/new/detail.asp?id=1809 As for [4] it is worth reading: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e6673 http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e6673. Aside from the separate dangers of overuse of antibiotics, the matter is way more subtle than being too clean. Yes we have lost contact with certain reinforcing environmental pathogens, but it is also true that the gain from cleanliness far outmatches the current risk of autoimmune disorders. UK researchers say that they have dismantled the “myth” that allergic diseases have risen to epidemic levels because people now live in sterile homes and have become “too clean.” .... The report says that although deficiencies in microbial exposure could be important in the rise in allergies and chronic inflammatory diseases—driven also by genetic predisposition and modern lifestyle factors such as different diets, stress, inactivity, and pollution—it is not yet clear how the trend can be reversed. Rook said, “There are lots of ideas being explored, but relaxing hygiene regimes won’t reunite us with our old friends—just expose us to new enemies like E coli 0104.”