This is durned interesting:

He Got Schizophrenia. He Got Cancer. And Then He Got Cured.

Short form: a guy started hearing voices and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Because the universe has a weird sense of humor, a  year later he was also diagnosed with leukemia. To treat him, his immune systems was nuked and replaced with a donor via bone marrow transplant. And afterwards, his schizophrenia seemingly nearly vanished, and now he’s more or less normal and no longer on meds.

The article makes it clear to not read too much into this. Could be the schizophrenia was wiped out by the leukemia meds. Could be any of a number of things. But it could also be that the immune system plays some role in such things, a notion buttressed by the fact that in the 19th century – when the ethics of medical experimentation were a bit looser – a doctor intentionally gave some psychiatric patients malaria and found that some of them noticeably improved after recovery.

On wonders if there might be some value in doing bone marrow transplants – after wiping out the original immune system – on people with severe cases of schizophrenia. The  medical ethicists might have a field day with that, but what the heck: find someone in some prison for the criminally insane, someone locked up forever or on death row, someone who talks to the bricks and the bricks talk back… and give it a shot. That might end up raising a whole different ethical quagmire: let’s say the treatment is fantastically successful. Someone who was violently bugnuts is made sane and non-criminal. Do you keep them locked up or on schedule with their date with the executioner? If someone is truly crazy and had done horrifying things and is actually *cured,* do they remember what they’ve done, and do you need to keep them on 24/7 suicide watch? Would it be fair to turn a raving looney into a guilt-riddled doomed soul? Hmm…