Abstract
BackgroundA recent study performed on 1.3 million patients showed a strong association between being bitten by a cat and probability of being diagnosed with depression. Authors suggested that infection with cat parasite Toxoplasma could be the reason for this association.MethodA cross sectional internet study on a non-clinical population of 5,535 subjects was undertaken.ResultsThe subjects that reported having been bitten by a dog and a cat or scratched by a cat have higher Beck depression score. They were more likely to have visited psychiatrists, psychotherapists and neurologists in past two years, to have been previously diagnosed with depression (but not with bipolar disorder). Multivariate analysis of models with cat biting, cat scratching, toxoplasmosis, the number of cats at home, and the age of subjects as independent variables showed that only cat scratching had positive effect on depression (p = 0.004). Cat biting and toxoplasmosis had no effect on the depression, and the number of cats at home had a negative effect on depression (p = 0.021).ConclusionsAbsence of association between toxoplasmosis and depression and five times stronger association of depression with cat scratching than with cat biting suggests that the pathogen responsible for mood disorders in animals-injured subjects is probably not the protozoon Toxoplasma gondii but another organism; possibly the agent of cat-scratched disease – the bacteria Bartonella henselae.
Highlights
A recent study performed on 1.3 million patients showed a strong association between being bitten by a cat and probability of being diagnosed with depression
Recently, an exploratory study performed with a data mining technique on electronic records of 1.3 million patients of the University of Michigan Health System showed the existence of a strong association between dog and cat-bite injuries and the probability of being diagnosed with depression at some point in life [1]
This Facebook community consists of people of various ages, education levels, occupations and places of living. They are not compensated for participation in studies, they are being regularly informed about results of studies and about news in science and psychology on the Guinea Pigs web page. The former students of biology who were tested for toxoplasmosis during systematic research of behavioral effects of latent toxoplasmosis which has been running at the Faculty of Science in past years were probably overrepresented among the subjects who knew their Toxoplasma-infection status
Summary
A recent study performed on 1.3 million patients showed a strong association between being bitten by a cat and probability of being diagnosed with depression. Authors suggested that infection with cat parasite Toxoplasma could be the reason for this association. An exploratory study performed with a data mining technique on electronic records of 1.3 million patients of the University of Michigan Health System showed the existence of a strong association between dog and cat-bite injuries and the probability of being diagnosed with depression at some point in life [1]. The authors suggested that infection with Toxoplasma gondii could play a role in the observed association This protozoan parasite has a cat as definitive host, any homoeothermic vertebrate as intermediate or paratenic hosts, and can infect humans by several routes [2]. It was suggested that decreased concentration of tryptophan and serotonin – a part of the general defense of an organism against various infections – could be the reason for depression and possibly for the increased rate of suicide in Toxoplasma-
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