Cat Ownership and Schizophrenia-Related

[mapuc]

Originally Posted by Skybird

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.

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

In 1995, the theory that cats in the home can increase the risk of schizophrenia was first presented. According to the researchers, the cause should be the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which can be transmitted by cat bites or via faeces.
The journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, has examined some of the many studies and concludes that cat owners appear to have twice the risk of developing schizophrenia.

Markus