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A study identified a potential link between certain types of bug living in the oropharynx – the area where the tonsils are situated – and the psychotic illness.

Researcher Eduardo Castro-Naller, from George Washington University (GWU) in the US, said: “The oropharynx of schizophrenics seems to harbour different proportions of oral bacteria than healthy individuals.

“Specifically, our analyses revealed an association between microbes such as lactic-acid bacteria and schizophrenics.”

Certain diseases, like Parkinson’s and Huntingdon’s disease, are associated with damage to the pathways between the brain’s basal ganglia regions. The basal ganglia sits at the base of the brain and is responsible for, among other things, coordinating movement. It is made up of four interconnected, deep brain structures that imaging techniques have previously been unable to visualize.

The sudden onset of certain neuropsychiatric disorders in children, including obsessive-compulsive behaviors and tics, may be caused by infection-triggered autoimmune responses that attack the brain, according to key experts at the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorders Foundation Conference.