Mitochondrial Etiology of Psychiatric DisordersIs This the Full Story?

摘要

To the Editor Wallace claimed that neuropsychiatric diseases are not complex and proposed composite energy deficiency in the brain as a coherent theory for neuropsychiatric diseases.~(1) Although we like simple theories, we respectfully disagree. If this were true, all individuals with mitochondrial disease would present with, and nota bene with, a wide variety of neuropsychiatric diseases. This is clearly not the case. Consider a mitochondrial disease like mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes syndrome, which is associated with depression or psychosis in 50% of cases but not so frequently with anxiety,~(2) or POLG1 mutations, which are more frequently associated with psychosis than other psychopathology. Furthermore, such a brain composite energy deficiency should also result in a more 1-dimensional type of psychopathology that is at least not as diverse as in depression or schizophrenia, for example.