Studies show that parasites in cats are associated with male mental illness
It is known that
Conditional associations between childhood cat ownership and psychotic experiences in adulthood: A retrospective study --ScienceDirect
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.01.058
Annoying Cat Parasite Has Again Been Linked to Psychotic Episodes, But Only in Men
https://www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-cat-parasite-again-linked-to-psychotic-episodes-but-it-s-complicated
There have been voices pointing out the link between keeping cats and mental illness, and a 1995 study found that 'people who had cats as children are at high risk of having mental illness in adulthood. The result was shown. Some studies have suggested that the reason why cats are associated with the risk of mental illness is due to Toxoplasma, which is transmitted from cats to humans via feces, but other studies often did not show a good association. That.
So, instead of simply investigating 'whether you had a cat when you were a kid,' a research team led by Vincent Paquin, a psychiatrist at McGill University in Canada, said, 'The cat I had had a rat. We conducted a survey including 'whether you had a habit of hunting.'
Paquin and colleagues commented on the purpose of the study: 'Domestic cats are generally infected with parasites by eating rodents and then transfer to humans only within a few days to a few weeks.' 'Therefore, cats are rodents. Identifying whether or not hunting was known may provide a better indicator of the likelihood of exposure to Toxoplasma compared to cat possession alone. '
The research team recruited about 2,200 subjects living in Montreal, Canada, and asked if they had any experience with mental illness. Furthermore, in addition to items such as whether or not the cat was kept in childhood and whether or not the cat was hunting a mouse, data such as moving as a child, head trauma, and smoking history were collected and the results were analyzed.
The results showed that male subjects who had cats hunting mice as children were at increased risk of experiencing mental illness in adulthood. On the other hand, if the cat was not kept in early childhood, the cat was kept indoors, or the subject was a female, there was no increased risk of mental illness in adulthood. 'This result is consistent with our hypothesis that we can explain the mechanism of the link between cat rearing and psychiatric disorders based on the Toxoplasma life cycle,' the researchers said.
However, the results of this study are not just related to raising cats that hunt mice, but other factors such as smoking, moving, and head injuries also contribute to the risk of mental illness in adulthood. It seems that he suggested that he was there.
Paquin argues that this result suggests a synergistic effect of multiple factors, not just an infection with Toxoplasma gondii. 'These are small pieces of evidence, but it's interesting to think that a combination of risk factors may be working.' 'And even if the risk at the individual level is small, cats and Toxoplasma are in our society. There are so many that if you add up all these small potential effects, this is a potential public health problem. '
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