The subject invention provides an antigen characterized as having a molecular weight of approximately 68 kD, being reactive with autoantibodies associated with mental illness especially schizophrenia, being located in neuronal cells, and co-migrating with a protein band in SDS-PAGE which is recognized by rabbit antibodies which react with the peptide whose sequence is 1) alanine 2) lysine 3) X 4) valine 5) lysine 6) phenylalanine 7) glycine 8) alanine 9) aspartic acid 10) alanine 11) Y 12) alanine 13) leucine 14) methionine 15) leucine 14) methionine 15) leucine. The invention also provides methods for detecting in a sample from a subject the presence of an antibody to the neuronal antigen, determining the propensity of a subject toward a psychiatric disease, diagnosing and treating a subject having mental illness.
METHOD FOR DETECTING ANTIBODIES TO A NEUROBLASTOMA ANTIGEN IN MENTAL ILLNESS