
Is there association between Toxoplasma gondii infection and bipolar disorder? - delian66
http://www.jad-journal.com/article/S0165-0327(16)30561-4/abstract
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kawera
Another article on this subject:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1969/12/how-
your-c...](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1969/12/how-your-cat-is-
making-you-crazy/8873/)

Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3573694](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3573694)

And a good conversation with Robert Sapolsky:
[https://www.edge.org/conversation/toxo](https://www.edge.org/conversation/toxo)

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et2o
8 studies included, each with small sample sizes, with a combined OR estimate
of only 1.26 makes it hard to draw any conclusions from this.

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gwern
If the effect size were much larger, like an OR of 3, that would be suspicious
as well, since the ORs for suicide/accident/mortality/schizophrenia and
Toxoplasma also tend to be in the 1-2 range. I would consider this as part of
a broader picture showing a pervasive small-medium correlation of toxoplasma
infections & bad things involving the central nervous system.

It's interesting because we know that a lot of other infectious agents can
really screw up the nervous system, and psychiatric disorders repeatedly show
genetic correlations with the immune system.

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et2o
Very happy to have your comment, Gwern. I am a big fan of some of your work.

I certainly agree with you in principle. I just am not sure the sample sizes
here are truly large enough to capture an effect on the order of 1.25x for
such a complex phenotype. It's not necessarily a criticism of the author's
work, which appears to be well-done. I just updated my prior and remain not
yet convinced.

I also agree that many psychiatric disorders certainly have integral immune
components, but on the other hand this is also true for most chronic diseases
and pathologic processes (in my opinion).

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tomkin
"Crazy cat lady" is possibly more than just a term of endearment.

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pmoriarty
How is T. gondii infection actually diagnosed? Is there a way to treat it?

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volkanh
Simple blood test. No way to treat it.

In Turkey it is prevalent. Pregnant women who tested negative are discouraged
from eating raw fruits or vegetables unless they know that the food was
properly sanitized. Catching it during pregnancy might cause disfigurement of
fetus.

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jjtheblunt
No way to treat it? what about antibiotics and then the healthy immune system?

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GFK_of_xmaspast
It's a protozoan, antibiotics aren't going to do anything.

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COGlory
Lots of people refer to all antimicrobials as antibiotics. Protozoa can still
be treated in multiple ways with antimicrobials.

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eggie5
Cats

