America
Own a cat? You might get schizophrenia
Washington, June 15
Owning a cat might be your pastime. But growing up with a cat is linked with developing schizophrenia, new research shows.
The current study corroborates two previous researches.
The
parasite toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii), which can be passed from cats
to humans, could play a role in the development of schizophrenia, said
researchers.
“T. gondii gets into the brain and forms microscopic
cysts,†Edwin Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute was
quoted as telling the Huffington Post.
“We think it then becomes
activated in late adolescence and causes disease, probably by affecting
the neurotransmitters,†Torrey noted.
“Cat ownership in childhood
has now been reported in three studies to be significantly more common
in families in which the child is later diagnosed with schizophrenia or
another serious mental illness,†the researchers wrote.
They
looked at a questionnaire that had been distributed to families in 1982
but whose answers had not yet been analysed by scientists.
It
included data on 2,125 families who belonged to the National Institute
of Mental Illness (NAMI), and found 50.6 percent who developed
schizophrenia owned a cat in their childhood years, Daily Mail reported.
The results were strikingly similar to two studies conducted in the 1990s.
These studies found a 50.9 percent and 51.9 percent of people with schizophrenia grew up with a cat, respectively.
If a person is generally healthy, their immune system should keep the parasite in check.
T. gondii may also cause miscarriages, foetal development disorders, blindness and even death.
The research was published in the journal Schizophrenia Research.