Long time cat owners. Is this true? Owning cats can lead to schizophrenia

Della said:
Yes, and the article explains how the parasite from cats effects the chemical balance of the brain.

My son has schizophrenia and it turned his life into a waking nightmare. It does not run in our family and yes, we did have cats when he was young. He went from a happy young man, with straight A's in college, to homeless and lost in fear and confusion, in just a matter of months.

It isn't so funny when it's your child who has literally lost his mind.

Schizophrenia is the number one disabler of young people, costing the country a fortune in Social Security Disability payments. Although it is terrible enough to cause 80% of it's victims to attempt suicide, most sufferers don't die from it, but live on for many years taking medication that costs around $1000 per month. Most are unable to work even with medication.

Yet, our country spends more money on dental cavity research than on finding a cure for this disease.

I first heard about the cat parasite from a leading doctor in the field in 1997.

"To reach that conclusion, scientists in Australia analyzed 17 studies published over the last 44 years from 11 different countries, including the US and the UK."

17 studies and yet some people think we need more.

I'm surprised at the number of people who think their own personal experience negates scientific studies done by the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Association. I seriously doubt that the doctors and scientists conducting these studies are "anti-cat."
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I didnā€™t know you had a schizophrenic son.
That must be difficult Della. One of the patients I grew for had it. He mainly self medicated which is apparently what most do. I didnā€™t know 80% try to take their lives. How very sad. šŸ˜ž
 

I love cats, too. All the things I've read seem to think the most danger is to the fetus or very young children, so while I think getting a cat is something for young families to consider, for older people there's probably very little danger.
 
Oh so that's what's been wrong with me lately! :LOL: Seriously, I never heard that before. I know a very talented woman who is schizophrenic and it seems that now that she's older, it's harder for her to recover from it. She was institutionalized a little more than a year ago. As far as I know, she never owned at cat.
 
I read a bit about this other day. Not sure what to think. Cats scratching around in their litter boxes could release particulates into the air. I've had more than several cats over my life and I don't think I'm ill.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Well, those damn cats aren't doing a good job of creating schizophrenics in the US. There are about 46.5 million cat owners, and only about 3.2 million schizophrenics.
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Of course. It's not merely owning a cat that causes it, you have to actually ingest the parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. For example, my Aunt used to allow her cats to walk and sit on the kitchen counters. If her cat carried the parasite and sat on the surface, and she prepared food on that surface without washing it first, the parasite might get in the food, and someone might get the parasite from that food.

So it's not very likely to happen.

The study said that people with cats were twice as like likely to get schizophrenia. Schizophrenia strikes about one person in a hundred so that would up your chances to about two in a hundred. Still not very likely. That means that if 100 people have cats 98 of them still won't get schizophrenia.

All 98 will probably come on the Senior Forum and claim that the study is false because they have cats and they don't have schizophrenia.
Because that's how logic works in the Senior Forum universe.
 
Nothing wrong with owning a cat. You have any health problems, blame it on the one that you have to take outside for a poopy, and barks every time it sees a squirrel, postman, or a butterfly.
 
The Crazy Cat Lady is a recurring character on The Simpsons. She was once a high level professional. Hereā€™s a little of her backstoryā€¦


Being cheerfully demented to begin with, my cats havenā€™t made me worse, and are nicer than most peopleā€¦ šŸˆ
 
Della said:
Yes, and the article explains how the parasite from cats effects the chemical balance of the brain.

My son has schizophrenia and it turned his life into a waking nightmare. It does not run in our family and yes, we did have cats when he was young. He went from a happy young man, with straight A's in college, to homeless and lost in fear and confusion, in just a matter of months.

It isn't so funny when it's your child who has literally lost his mind.

Schizophrenia is the number one disabler of young people, costing the country a fortune in Social Security Disability payments. Although it is terrible enough to cause 80% of it's victims to attempt suicide, most sufferers don't die from it, but live on for many years taking medication that costs around $1000 per month. Most are unable to work even with medication.

Yet, our country spends more money on dental cavity research than on finding a cure for this disease.

I first heard about the cat parasite from a leading doctor in the field in 1997.

"To reach that conclusion, scientists in Australia analyzed 17 studies published over the last 44 years from 11 different countries, including the US and the UK."

17 studies and yet some people think we need more.

I'm surprised at the number of people who think their own personal experience negates scientific studies done by the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Association. I seriously doubt that the doctors and scientists conducting these studies are "anti-cat."
Click to expand...

Thank you for this information.
 

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