Several studies have already shown the link between toxoplasmosis and psychotic illnesses, including schizophrenia. In a new study, researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, sought to understand the chain of transmission between a parasitic infection in childhood and the onset of psychotic episodes in old age. adult.
They questioned 2,200 adults about their background (did they have a cat during childhood, did they move often, did they suffer from a head trauma, etc.) and by analyzing the answers, the A team of researchers first observed that men who had owned a cat that lived outdoors and hunted rodents as children had an increased risk of suffering from psychotic experiences as adults.
It’s not enough to have a cat
Admittedly, according to the analysis of the questionnaires, the men who had not had a cat or who had an indoor cat (thus which did not hunt rodents) presented less risk. However, having a rodent-hunting cat (therefore likely to be in contact with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii which rodents carry) is not enough. To increase psychotic risk, external factors also interfere, including smoking, high frequency of moving during childhood or adolescence, head trauma, which the researchers say suggests “synergistic effects of these factors” beyond parasitic infection alone. “It’s interesting to consider that there could be combinations of risk factors at play.”
Source : Conditional associations between childhood cat ownership and psychotic experiences in adulthood: A retrospective study, Journal of psychotic studies, April 2022
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