Schizophrenia and Infections: The Eyes Have It

Torrey, E. Fuller; Yolken, Robert H.

doi:10.1093/schbul/sbw113

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…(2) The strength of the effect positively correlated with the intensity of exposure to the suspected risk factor, here the intensity of sustained animal-related injuries. (3) The cats and dogs are vectors of some pathogens that are known to have negative impacts on human mental health [37, 56, 61]. In the present study we showed that Toxoplasma was not the cause of the observed associations between the injuries and impaired health of the responders [56].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Friends with malefit. The effects of keeping dogs and cats, sustaining animal-related injuries and Toxoplasma infection on health and quality of life

Flegr

Preiss

2019

PLoS ONE

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Many studies show that keeping cats and dogs has a positive impact on humans’ physical and mental health and quality of life. The existence of this “pet phenomenon” is now widely discussed because other studies performed recently have demonstrated a negative impact of owning pets or no impact at all. The main problem of many studies was the autoselection–participants were informed about the aims of the study during recruitment and later likely described their health and wellbeing according to their personal beliefs and wishes, not according to their real status. To avoid this source of bias, we did not mention pets during participant recruitment and hid the pet-related questions among many hundreds of questions in an 80-minute Internet questionnaire. Results of our explorative study performed on a sample of 10,858 subjects showed that liking dogs has a weak positive association with quality of life. However, keeping pets, especially cats, and even more being injured by pets, were strongly negatively associated with many facets of quality of life. Our data also confirmed that infection by the cat parasite Toxoplasma had a very strong negative effect on quality of life, especially on mental health. However, the infection was not responsible for the observed negative effects of keeping pets, as these effects were much stronger in 1,527 Toxoplasma-free subjects than in the whole population. Any cross-sectional study cannot discriminate between a cause and an effect. However, because of the large and still growing popularity of keeping pets, the existence and nature of the reverse pet phenomenon deserve the outmost attention.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

Friends with malefit. The effects of keeping dogs and cats, sustaining animal-related injuries and Toxoplasma infection on health and quality of life

Flegr

Preiss

2019

PLoS ONE

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“…However recently studies have documented that tissue cysts are engaged in active metabolism and interaction with the host [ 1 ]. Accordingly, serological studies indicate that exposure to Toxoplasma can be associated with eye disease [ 2 ] as well as an increased risk of a range of neuropsychiatric diseases including schizophrenia[ 3 , 4 ], bipolar disorder[ 5 ], suicidal behavior[ 6 ], anxiety disorder [ 7 ] and cognitive decline in the elderly [ 8 ] in some populations. The factors which determine why some Toxoplasma exposed individuals develop medical or psychiatric disorders while others are unaffected have not been determined but may related to the strain of Toxoplasma, host factors, or the timing of infection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of increased exposure to Toxoplasma gondii in individuals with recent onset psychosis but not with established schizophrenia

Yolken¹,

Torrey

Dickerson

2017

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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A possible role for Toxoplasma gondii in the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia is supported by epidemiological studies and animal models of infection. However, recent studies attempting to link Toxoplasma to schizophrenia have yielded mixed results. We performed a nested case-control study measured serological evidence of exposure to Toxoplasma gondii in a cohort of 2052 individuals. Within this cohort, a total of 1481 individuals had a psychiatric disorder and 571 of were controls without a psychiatric disorder. We found an increased odds of Toxoplasma exposure in individuals with a recent onset of psychosis (OR 2.44, 95% Confidence Interval 1.4–4.4, p < .003). On the other hand, an increased odds of Toxoplasma exposure was not found in individuals with schizophrenia or other psychiatric disorder who did not have a recent onset of psychosis. By identifying the timing of evaluation as a variable, these findings resolve discrepancies in previous studies and suggest a temporal relationship between Toxoplasma exposure and disease onset.

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“…39 Ocular infections with the parasitic apicomplexan T. gondii, associated to substantial increases in OST, might explain some of the perceptual distortions experienced in schizophrenia. 42 Drug-free SCZ patients showed 1.55 C higher corneal temperatures when compared to matched controls. 43 Another study reported that the corneal temperature of neuroleptic-treated patients was signicantly lower than that of the drug-free patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Contact lenses for continuous corneal temperature monitoring

et al. 2019

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Temperature variation is a ubiquitous medical sign to monitor ocular conditions including dry eye disease (DED), glaucoma, carotid artery stenosis, diabetic retinopathy, and vascular neuritis. The ability to measure OST in real time is desirable in point-of-care diagnostics. Here, we developed minimally invasive contact lens temperature sensors for continuous monitoring of the corneal temperature. The contact lens sensor consisted of a laser patterned commercial contact lens embedding temperature-sensitive Cholesteric Liquid Crystals (CLCs), which exhibited a fully reversible temperature-dependent color change in the visible spectrum. The contact lens allowed the corneal temperature to be mapped in four key areas, at distances of 0.0, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 mm from the pupil's edge. Liquid crystals exhibited a wavelength shift from 738 AE 4 nm to 474 AE 4 nm upon increasing the temperature from 29.0 C to 40.0 C, with a time responsivity of 490 ms and a negligible hysteresis. Readouts were performed using a smartphone, which output RGB triplets associated to temperature values. Contact lens sensors based on CLCs were fitted and tested on an ex vivo porcine eye and readouts were compared with infrared thermal measurements, resulting in an average difference of 0.3 C.

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Schizophrenia and Infections: The Eyes Have It

Cited by 16 publications

References 87 publications

Friends with malefit. The effects of keeping dogs and cats, sustaining animal-related injuries and Toxoplasma infection on health and quality of life

Friends with malefit. The effects of keeping dogs and cats, sustaining animal-related injuries and Toxoplasma infection on health and quality of life

Evidence of increased exposure to Toxoplasma gondii in individuals with recent onset psychosis but not with established schizophrenia

Contact lenses for continuous corneal temperature monitoring

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