Psychiatric aspects of tuberculosis.

The association between mycobacteria and humans is long and will undoubtedly continue to challenge our attempts at understanding tuberculosis as an infectious disease in particular and as a chronic illness in general. We have inherited a wealth of notions, assumptions, and myths about tuberculosis and our predispositions and reactions to it, and this inheritance has adversely affected the current perspective on the disorder and has undermined some research efforts by limiting scientific vision and imagination. Continuing basic research in immunology and imaginative research designs in psychiatry will help us more clearly see how we are predisposed to acquire and have relapses of tuberculosis by emotional stress, and how our reactions to the illness affect recovery. Energetic efforts in these areas will allow more effective public health interventions and individual psychiatric treatment of individuals with tuberculosis or other chronic pulmonary infections.