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AbstractRecent epidemiologic studies indicate that infectious agents may contribute to some cases of schizophrenia. In animals, infection with Toxoplasma gondii can alter behavior and neurotransmitter function. In humans, acute infection with T. gondii can produce psychotic symptoms similar to those displayed by persons with schizophrenia. Since 1953, a total of 19 studies of T. gondii antibodies in persons with schizophrenia and other severe psychiatric disorders and in controls have been reported; 18 reported a higher percentage of antibodies in the affected persons; in 11 studies the difference was statistically significant. Two other studies found that exposure to cats in childhood was a risk factor for the development of schizophrenia. Some medications used to treat schizophrenia inhibit the replication of T. gondii in cell culture. Establishing the role of T. gondii in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia might lead to new medications for its prevention and treatment.
Some cases of acute toxoplasmosis in adults are associated with psychiatric symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. A review of 114 cases of acquired toxoplasmosis noted that "psychiatric disturbances were very frequent" in 24 of the case-patients (10). Case reports describe a 22-year-old woman who exhibited paranoid and bizarre delusions ("she said she had no veins in her arms and legs"), disorganized speech, and flattened affect; a 32-year-old woman who had auditory and visual hallucinations; and a 34-year-old woman who experienced auditory hallucinations and a thought disorder (11). Schizophrenia was first diagnosed in all three patients, but later neurologic symptoms developed, which led to the correct diagnosis of Toxoplasma encephalitis.
Psychiatric manifestations of T. gondii are also prominent in immunocompromised persons with AIDS in whom latent infections have become reactivated. Reviews of such AIDS cases with toxoplasmosis have indicated that altered mental status may occur in as many as 60% of patients and that the symptoms may include delusions, auditory hallucinations, and thought disorders (12).
Additional studies have documented that persons with serologic evidence of Toxoplasma infection have evidence of psychiatric changes in the absence of a history of clinically apparent Toxoplasma infection. Studies in which personality questionnaires have been administered to healthy adults have indicated that serum antibodies to T. gondii are associated with alterations in behavior and psychomotor skills (13). Seropositivity to Toxoplasma has also been associated with "lack of energy or tiredness" in schoolchildren (14). In view of these findings, we decided to carry out serologic and other studies and to survey the literature for possible additional links between Toxoplasma infection and schizophrenia. LINK
The above abstract you just read is from the CDC. Please note the many symptoms that the CDC lists and their relevance to violence. "Symptoms may include delusions, auditory hallucinations, and thought disorders (12)." The more I read about this disease the more concern I have knowing that so many people in the United States are infected with this disease. Is this one of the several causes of violence that is popping-up throughout our nation, often with multiple murders and violence on a level that most of us just shake our heads in disbelief that this can be happening in our nation. We first heard of this disease while watching The Science Channel where they stated that an approximate number of individuals in the United States was 68% who are infected with this disease.
If that figure is correct, or even half-correct,
it is wholly unacceptable! If you follow the links I have supplied and
read all of the material that is available it becomes crystal clear that
this isn't a simple cold; this is a disease that causes psychiatric
disorders, hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, schizophrenia, and a host
of other illnesses, some of which are known to affect the behavior of
the individual infected with the disease. As we reel in disbelief at the
violence, mass murders, spree killings, schools being attacked by
individuals with assault weapons, and the list goes on, we have to ask
ourselves if this disease is causing some of the crazy violent act and
odd behavior of our neighbors, politicians, soldiers, and any "Average
American" that might have been exposed to this disease. In our opinion,
this is a disease that can be controlled by drugs and we believe that
because of the spike of violence in these United States that every
individual should be tested and if they are infected, treated and
resolve this disease that could be effecting our national security.
Unfortunately, we are dealing with several illnesses in our own family and the added trauma of my twin sons being held in Pensacola, Florida, on murder and robbery charges. As I said in the first installment of this series, I have a vested interest in this rise in violence, and while I cannot be of assistance to my sons in any meaningful way, attempting to understand and isolate the cause of this rise of violence is one of my most important projects at this particular moment. There is an article in The Atlantic that covers this disease when Jaroslav Flegr thought that his mind had been taken over by parasites:
How Your Cat Is Making You CrazyJaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he's now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia?
No one would accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described "sloppy dresser," the 53-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire.
Certainly Flegr's thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.
The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis--the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats' litter boxes. Since the 1920s, doctors have recognized that a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy can transmit the disease to the fetus, in some cases resulting in severe brain damage or death. T. gondii is also a major threat to people with weakened immunity: in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, before good antiretroviral drugs were developed, it was to blame for the dementia that afflicted many patients at the disease's end stage. Healthy children and adults, however, usually experience nothing worse than brief flu-like symptoms before quickly fighting off the protozoan, which thereafter lies dormant inside brain cells--or at least that's the standard medical wisdom.
But if Flegr is right, the "latent" parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that's not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, "Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year." LINK
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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