Recent research suggests that a cat-borne disease called toxoplasmosis may increase the likelihood of psychotic symptoms. In addition, the study authors report that young people who are already at riskhigher risks of psychosisconsist. To do this, they conducted a long-term study with 96 people between the ages of 15 and 30 who met certain high-risk criteria.
Exposure to toxoplasmosis and psychotic symptoms in humans
The research team found that participants who transitioned into psychosis had significantly higher levels of antibodies to Toxoplasma. This was a worrying finding compared to those without psychotic symptoms. In fact, exposure to toxoplasmosis was associated with a 3.6-fold increase in the risk of progression to psychosis. Toxoplasma affects cats, which can transmit it to their owners. Most people who grew up with such animals became infected with them at some point. There are usually no symptoms. However, in recent years some links have been identified between exposure and a number of disorders, including psychosis. The scientists claim that the study analyzed the criteria that can identify people at immediate risk of developing psychosis. This is in addition to the already established criteria including clinical and biological risk factors.
The professor and his colleagues found that people exposed to the parasite experienced psychotic symptoms. Accordingly, this could further increase the risk of transition to psychosis in people with extremely high predisposition, the researchers said. Additionally, the mean duration of follow-up was 6.46 years. After adjusting for age, gender and year of assessment, the team observed seropositivity for toxoplasmosis in multivariate regression models with a 3.6-fold increase in risk of transition. If the findingthis studycan be replicated in larger samples, the authors could use this status for toxoplasmosis as a biological marker in risk calculators. These would then be able to estimate the individual risk of psychosis in young high-risk patients.
