Hornig, M, Briese, T, Licinio, J et al. · Molecular psychiatry · 2012 · DOI
Researchers tested whether a virus called Borna disease virus (BDV) might cause depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. They carefully compared blood samples from 198 patients with these conditions and 198 healthy people, looking for signs of the virus. They found no evidence that the virus was present in either group, suggesting BDV is not responsible for these psychiatric illnesses.
For ME/CFS patients and researchers, this study is significant because chronic fatigue syndrome was among the conditions previously associated with BDV in uncontrolled studies. This well-designed investigation demonstrates the importance of rigorous, blinded case-control methodology in validating earlier claims of viral associations with chronic illnesses, and it suggests that similar scrutiny should be applied to other proposed infectious etiologies of ME/CFS.
This study does not prove that BDV plays no role in ME/CFS specifically, as chronic fatigue syndrome was not the primary focus and was not systematically evaluated in this cohort. It also does not establish whether BDV might be involved in other conditions, nor does it rule out other potential viral or infectious agents in psychiatric or post-viral illnesses. The absence of evidence in serum and white blood cells does not entirely exclude tissue-specific or compartmentalized infection.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Hornig, M, Briese, T, Licinio, J, Khabbaz, R F, Altshuler, L L, Potkin, S G, et al. (2012). Absence of evidence for bornavirus infection in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.. Molecular psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2011.179
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-hornig-2012-absence-evidence,
author = {Hornig, M and Briese, T and Licinio, J and Khabbaz, R F and Altshuler, L L and Potkin, S G and Schwemmle, M and Siemetzki, U and Mintz, J and Honkavuori, K and Kraemer, H C and Egan, M F and Whybrow, P C and Bunney, W E and Lipkin, W I},
title = {Absence of evidence for bornavirus infection in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.},
journal = {Molecular psychiatry},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1038/mp.2011.179},
note = {PubMed: 22290118},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hornig-2012-absence-evidence},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hornig-2012-absence-evidence
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