cat ownership in childhood is a significant risk factor for later developing schizophrenia” study
Torrey et al. (2015) recently published a third study reporting
that cat ownership in childhood is a significant risk factor for later developing
schizophrenia. In their paper they urged others “to collect data on
cat and pet ownership” to try and replicate the findings from their three
studies.
Apparently unknown to Torrey et al., we have published such a
study (Yuksel et al., 2010). As shown in Table 1 and reported in our
paper: “The prevalence of close cat contact in the individuals with
schizophrenia (59%) compared to the patient controls (6%) or healthy
controls [blood donors] (9%) is one of the most striking findings from
this study (p b .0001).” However, when we included the toxoplasma
IgG for each patient with schizophrenia in a multivariate logistic regression
along with age, gender, education and cat contact, the results
suggested that “toxoplasmosis has no effect on the risk of schizophrenia
in Turkey.” Thus, the strong relationship between cat ownership in childhood and later schizophrenia may be caused by another infectious agent carried by cats.
We agree that it is surprising to be able to show any relationship
between cat ownership in childhood and the subsequent development
of schizophrenia or other serious mental illness. As we have shown elsewhere,
children can be exposed to the oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii by
playing in any public sandbox, schoolyard, or children’s play area which
has been contaminated by cat feces (Torrey and Yolken, 2013). Similarly,
a family may not own a cat but a neighborhood cat may contaminate a
sandbox or play area in which a child plays. The level of contamination
may reach more than one million oocysts per square foot of sandbox
surface resulting in a high level of exposure and risk of infection
and
The urban risk and migration risk factors for schizophrenia: are cats the answer?
Given that a lot of families have cats the vast majority of which the children don’t develop schizophrenia or psychosis I find it hard to take this research seriously. Unless they are arguing for an increased risk in those with a susceptibility/familial loading for schizophrenia/psychosis.
Reaching? Ok, well, I have the full cocktail it seems…I was born two months premature with many complications, I was abused/neglected, I have a family history of MI, and particularly sz, auto-immune disorders, such as Lupus, run in my family as well, and my mom had a thing for cats so I grew up with multiple cats…anything else?
I read there was a gene for the immune system that controls schizophrenia. Maybe schizophrenics lack the immune system to deal with toxoplasma gondii where others don’t
interesting. we didnt own any cats during my childhood but the strange thing is that my parents bought themselves one shortly when i was released from hospital due to my sz breakdown. i cant say that my mental illness is getting worse from this animal. i did have a weird delusion once, that the cat is possessed though.
I believe toxoplasmosis might be the cause of schizophrenia considering Minocycline cures psychosis and negative symptoms and the c4 gene causes schizophrenia
