Do you keep a cat? Cats give human companionship no less than dogs. Internet terms such as "cat sucking" and "cat slaves" also represent human love for cats, but one study found that raising cats may increase a person's risk...
Do you keep a cat?
Cats give human companionship no less than dogs. Internet terms such as "cat sucking" and "cat slaves" also represent human love for cats, but one study found that raising cats may increase a person's risk of developing schizophrenia related diseases...
Last December, several researchers from the Queensland Mental Health Research Center in Australia published a paper in the Schizophrenia Bulletin, saying, "People who raise cats are more than twice as likely to have mental illness than people who don't raise cats."
"We found that there is a correlation between raising cats and the increased probability of developing schizophrenia related diseases."
psychiatrist John McGrath said. The idea of
can be traced back to a 1995 paper that stated that the source of this may be related to a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii.
But the conclusions of this paper at that time led to considerable controversy. So many years later, Australian researchers have once again conducted a detailed analysis of 17 studies published in the past 44 years, including 11 countries including Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Through this study, people who raised cats before the age of 25 were 2.35 times more at risk of schizophrenia (unadjusted ratio was 2.35 and adjusted ratio was 2.24).
Toxoplasma gondii is a common type of intracellular parasitic protozoa with only leukocyte size in length. Its life cycle requires two hosts, the intermediate host includes reptiles, fish, insects, mammals and other animals and humans, while the final host is cat and feline, mainly living in the cat's intestines.
Toxoplasma gondii does not affect cats' biological function, but for humans and other animals, it can cross the blood-brain barrier to cause damage to the central nervous system. This parasitic disease is associated with personality changes, the emergence of mental symptoms, and some neurological diseases, including schizophrenia.
In 2015, the Academic Medical Center of Amsterdam, Netherlands, covered 50 previous studies, showed that the proportion of IgG antibodies detected by
1 Toxoplasma gondii IgG antibodies were significantly higher than those of healthy controls in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and substance addiction;
2 Pre-onset serological positive and serological levels had a significant impact on the correlation between Toxoplasma gondii and schizophrenia;
3 After controlling for offset, the higher rate of Toxoplasma gondii infection in patients with schizophrenia was still statistically significant.
Conclusion: Toxoplasma infection is related to various common mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
It is worth noting that this parasite is common around the world, and about one-third of humans have been infected. In the United States, about 40 million people may have contracted the parasite, usually without any symptoms. In China, the infection rate is between 5% and 20%, and in some areas it even exceeds 30%.
So how does Toxoplasma gondii spread? First, if a cat is infected, the feces it excretes every day usually contain millions of Toxoplasma gondii egg sacs, which can be infected after being "hatched". In addition, Toxoplasma gondii will also be transmitted if bitten by an already infected cat.
This is also why there are often slogans on cat saddle bags that remind pregnant women and children to avoid contact with cat feces.
But it should be noted that these papers are generally related studies, and researchers also said that the sample quality of some of the studies is not high, so it does not mean that raising cats will definitely lead to schizophrenia. It is just that the correlation between the two cannot prove the causal relationship.
Faced with this problem, the United States also conducted a large-scale research experiment, involving 354 psychology students, and the final conclusion showed that there was no connection between raising cats and schizophrenia personality scores. However, those who have been bitten by cats
In short, friends who have already raised cats do not need to have too many concerns, nor do they have to be too nervous. Just avoid cats eating raw meat on a daily basis, clean cat litter every day, and clean and disinfect them in time.
