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An amazing new finding suggests a common parasite carried by animals
may increase the risk of schizophrenia. Toxoplasma gondii parasite, an
organism carried by carried by cats and farm animals was found to
increase the risk of schizophrenia by 24 percent among individuals.

A report on the study, conducted among U.S. military personnel by
researchers from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Johns
Hopkins Children’s Center appears in the January issue of the American
Journal of Psychiatry.

The findings were derived from what is believed to be the largest
comparison of blood samples collected from healthy individuals and
people with schizophrenia.

Researchers found that of the 180 study subjects diagnosed with
schizophrenia, 7 percent had been infected with toxoplasma prior to
their diagnosis, compared to 5 percent among the 532 healthy recruits.

Thus, people exposed to toxoplasma had a 24 percent higher risk of
developing schizophrenia.

The difference, while seemingly small, is important, researchers say,
because the ability to explain even a small portion of the 2 million
cases of schizophrenia in the United States may offer clues to the
disease and some possible treatments.

For example, the investigators say they plan to study whether
aggressive treatment of toxoplasma infection with antiparasitic drugs
in patients with schizophrenia could halt the progression of the
mental disorder, characterized by paranoia, delusions and
hallucinations.

Most infections with toxoplasma occur early in life following exposure
to the parasite in cat feces or undercooked beef or pork. Infections
rarely cause symptoms, but the parasite remains in the body and can
reactivate after lying dormant for years.

“Our findings reveal the strongest association we’ve seen yet between
infection with this very common parasite and the subsequent
development of schizophrenia,” says Robert Yolken, M. D., a
neurovirologist at Hopkins Children’s who was among those conducting
the analysis.

Previous studies have reported on the link between schizophrenia and
the presence of toxoplasma antibodies, which are evidence of past
infection, but this is the first study to show that infection with the
parasite can precede the initial onset of symptoms and subsequent
diagnosis with schizophrenia, Yolken says.

Because the U.S. military routinely tests its active personnel for
toxoplasma, among other infectious agents, and stores blood samples in
a central repository, researchers were able to determine the time line
between infection and a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

“Until now, the only thing we could say is that some people with
schizophrenia also had been infected with toxoplasma at some point,
but we couldn’t tease out which came first,” Yolken says.

“With our current study, we were able to show that infection came
first.”

While most people infected with toxoplasma never develop
schizophrenia, the parasite may be a trigger in those genetically
predisposed to the disorder, a classic example of how genes and
environment come together in the development of disease, Yolken says.

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine