Abstract
Infecting approximately one-third of the world’s population, the neurotropic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii has been associated with cognition and several neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Findings have been mixed, however, about the relationship between Toxoplasma gondii and depression, with some studies reporting positive associations and others finding no associations. To further investigate the association between Toxoplasma gondii and depression, we used data from the UK Biobank and the National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES). Results from adjusted multiple-regression modeling showed no significant associations between Toxoplasma gondii and depression in either the UK Biobank or NHANES datasets. Further, we found no significant interactions between Toxoplasma gondii and age, sex, educational attainment, and income in either dataset that affected the association between Toxoplasma gondii and depression. These results from two community-based datasets suggest that in these samples, Toxoplasma gondii is not associated with depression. Differences between our findings and other findings showing an association between Toxoplasma gondii and depression could be due to several factors including differences in socioeconomic variables, differences in Toxoplasma gondii strain, and use of different covariates in statistical modeling.
Highlights
Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular apicomplexan protozoon that infects an estimated one-third of the world’s population [1]
Based on the results of adjusted multivariable regression modeling, there were no significant associations between Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity and depression in either the UK Biobank or National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) datasets (Table 2) (Figure S1)
Even in the expanded NHANES sample of 5028 that included participants ranging in age from 18 to 80 years, there were no significant associations between Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity and depression
Summary
Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular apicomplexan protozoon that infects an estimated one-third of the world’s population [1]. Because Toxoplasma gondii is neurotropic with lifelong persistence in the brain of the host [3], it is possible that it affects brain function, and, many studies have reported associations between acute and latent infection with Toxoplasma gondii and behavior [4] and cognitive function in humans [5]. The results of studies investigating associations between Toxoplasma gondii and depressive disorders have been mixed. Some studies have found associations between Toxoplasma gondii and depressive disorders [23,24,25,26,27,28], whereas others have not [29,30,31,32,33]
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