Cat Ownership and Schizophrenia-Related
 

https://academic.oup.com/schizophren...xt&login=false

Then I'm in the high risc sector have had cat most of my life.

(First I was thinking of posting it in our cat thread. Decided to make a new thread instead)

A more in-deep article
https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/...CRD42023426974

Markus

An association is not the same like causation, you must not be worried.

It could be, for example, that people who are vulnerable to schizophrenia are attracted to cats as a consequence/symptom of this susceptibility because of characteristics associated with the animals (soft, cuddly, warm, I don't know what). In this case, the predisposition to schizophrenia would not be a consequence, but rather the cause of these people becoming cat owners.

However, many cats carry a parasite that can change their behavior and personality, and which can probably also be transmitted to humans. Whether this parasite is known to cause psychotic episodes or schizophrenia, I don't know.

Such parasites are known in biology, they manipulate the behavior of their host in the sense of their survival and reproduction strategy, which leads, for example, to suicidal behavior of the host, it loses its fear of predators because it serves the reproductive cycle of the parasite when the host is eaten and spread by its predator through excretion.

This is a which came first the chicken or the egg type of question. Are they crazy cat ladies before they get the cats or after? :D

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d6/90/6c/d...umpy-kitty.jpg

I read the article in Danish and found the English version through a link in this article.
In the Danish article it says clearly cat owner has a higher risc developing schizophrenia

From the Danish science article
Markus

Ah yes, thats the parasite I had on mind, I always forget the name.