This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

David A. Edwards, MD
Reno, Nev

JAMA. 1985;253(23):3400.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The reply given by Dr Coleman¹ to the question regarding the potential relationship between Candida albicans and depression is in error. The clinical association between C albicans colonization and depression has appeared in the literature² before Dr Crook's statement.³ Although the exact mechanism(s) for this association remain unclear, there are a number of possible explanations. The "drunken yeast syndrome" has been described in the foreign medical literature since the 1950s.⁴ It has been proved to be due to ethanol production by C albicans and other organisms. Ethanol is a known central nervous system depressant.

In addition, canditoxin, a high-molecular-weight mycotoxin isolated from virulent strains of C albicans, has been reported to produce clear behavioral changes in experimental animals.⁵ Although relatively high doses of this compound were used, these changes, nevertheless, were noticeable and reported. It is conceivable that a similar condition may . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?