Dr Fetissov's work also adds weight to the idea that two >other neurological diseases, schizophrenia and Tourette's syndrome, have >an autoimmune component. In the case of these diseases, the damage seems >to be caused irreversibly in the womb, suggesting that any >autoantibodies involved are attacking structural molecules rather than >messengers (attacks on structural molecules are the cause of multiple >sclerosis, though they involve a different part of the immune system). >That gives little hope for treatment. But in the case of anorexia, >bulimia and, possibly, obsessive-compulsiv­e disorder, Dr Fetissov's work >opens a new line of thinking about how these diseases might be treated.