Infection-Associated Chronic Neuropsychiatric Impairments: Exploring infectious and immune drivers of chronic cognitive, behavioural, and psychiatric symptoms

In this AONM webinar, psychiatrist Dr. Robert Bransfield explores how infections can contribute to chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms. He discusses how immune responses to pathogens can inflame the brain, impair cognition, and alter mood and behaviour.

Dr. Bransfield presents a multi-system disease model in which microbes such as Borrelia burgdorferi trigger neuroinflammation, autoimmunity, and lasting immune dysregulation. He examines how cumulative pathogen exposure may drive a spectrum of mental and behavioural disturbances.

The webinar also considers historical and modern infections, emerging research on microbes and mental illness, and potential societal impacts, including rising psychiatric burden and instability following SARS-CoV-2. It emphasises the need for a medical approach that integrates psychiatry, neurology, immunology, and infectious disease.