Are anti-nuclear antibodies common in affective disorders? A review of the past 35 years.

There has been debate in the literature about whether or not positive anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) titers are associated with affective disorders. Using specific search criteria, the author conducted a search of PubMed over the past 35 years. Four studies showed a positive correlation, whereas eight did not. Some of the positive studies have confounding factors. Given that the positive studies have confounding factors and that there are more negative studies than positive ones, it is logical to assume that there is no association between ANA titer and affective disorders until a properly controlled study is conducted.