Healing with malaria: a brief historical review of malariotherapy for neurosyphilis, mental disorders and other infectious diseases

Freitas, Daniel Roberto Coradi de; Santos, João Barberino; Castro, Cleudson

doi:10.1590/0037-8682-0209-2013

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Ancient knowledge of the psychiatric effects of malaria included accounts describing reductions in aggressiveness among the mentally ill after bouts of malaria [ 72 ]. In the early twentieth century, growing awareness of the reported psychiatric effects of malaria, and recognition that febrile illness had proven therapeutic in the treatment of neurosyphillis [ 73 ]—a debilitating and epidemic condition then known as “general paresis” for which no effective treatments were then available [ 74 ]—prompted the first formal experimentation with the practice of malariotherapy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychiatric effects of malaria and anti-malarial drugs: historical and modern perspectives

Nevin

Croft

2016

Malar J

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The modern medical literature implicates malaria, and particularly the potentially fatal form of cerebral malaria, with a risk of neurocognitive impairment. Yet historically, even milder forms of malaria were associated in the literature with a broad range of psychiatric effects, including disorders of personality, mood, memory, attention, thought, and behaviour. In this article, the history of psychiatric effects attributed to malaria and post-malaria syndromes is reviewed, and insights from the historical practice of malariotherapy in contributing to understanding of these effects are considered. This review concludes with a discussion of the potentially confounding role of the adverse effects of anti-malarial drugs, particularly of the quinoline class, in the unique attribution of certain psychiatric effects to malaria, and of the need for a critical reevaluation of the literature in light of emerging evidence of the chronic nature of these adverse drug effects.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychiatric effects of malaria and anti-malarial drugs: historical and modern perspectives

Nevin

Croft

2016

Malar J

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“…The history of anti-oncological malaria-therapy started with the supposition that cancer could be cured by concomitant malarial fevers (Freitas et al . 2014). Even if malarial temperature elevation exerts both direct and indirect anti-oncogenic effects, most of the anti-tumourigenic actions of malaria would not be dependent on temperature elevation (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Puzzling and ambivalent roles of malarial infections in cancer development and progression

Faure

2016

Parasitology

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Scientific evidence strongly suggests that parasites are directly or indirectly associated with carcinogenesis in humans. However, studies have also indicated that parasites or their products might confer resistance to tumour growth. Plasmodium protozoa, the causative agents of malaria, exemplify the ambivalent link between parasites and cancer. Positive relationships between malaria and virus-associated cancers are relatively well-documented; for example, malaria can reactivate the Epstein-Barr Virus, which is the known cause of endemic Burkitt lymphoma. Nevertheless, possible anti-tumour properties of malaria have also been reported and, interestingly, this disease has long been thought to be beneficial to patients suffering from cancers. Current knowledge of the potential pro- and anti-cancer roles of malaria suggests that, contrary to other eukaryotic parasites affecting humans, Plasmodium-related cancers are principally lymphoproliferative disorders and attributable to virus reactivation, whereas, similar to other eukaryotic parasites, the anti-tumour effects of malaria are primarily associated with carcinomas and certain sarcomas. Moreover, malarial infection significantly suppresses murine cancer growth by inducing both innate and specific adaptive anti-tumour responses. This review aims to present an update regarding the ambivalent association between malaria and cancer, and further studies may open future pathways to develop novel strategies for anti-cancer therapies.

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“…Hippocrates noted that mentally ill people improved and showed less aggression during and after intermittent fever – the Ancient Greek term for malaria 21 . Then, early in the 20 th century, clinicians realised that febrile illness could treat a severe form of neurosyphilis – then known as ‘general paresis (or paralysis) of the insane’ (GPI) – which causes progressive CNS degeneration that almost always proves fatal 3,21 …”

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confidence: 99%

“…Malariotherapy – deliberately inducing fever by inoculating patients with, usually, Plasmodium vivax, which produces a relatively benign disease with high and regular fevers – soon became an established treatment in the decades before antibiotics 3,21 . A review of the records of 180 people with GPI treated at a Dutch hospital between 1924 and 1957 found that doctors mentioned malariotherapy in the notes of 39 men and four women aged between 32 and 69 years.…”

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confidence: 99%

Parasites and mental health

Greener¹

2022

Prog Neurol Psychiatry

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Healing with malaria: a brief historical review of malariotherapy for neurosyphilis, mental disorders and other infectious diseases

Cited by 12 publications

References 9 publications

Psychiatric effects of malaria and anti-malarial drugs: historical and modern perspectives

Psychiatric effects of malaria and anti-malarial drugs: historical and modern perspectives

Puzzling and ambivalent roles of malarial infections in cancer development and progression

Parasites and mental health

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