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Cat Ownership Linked With Increased Risk for Schizophrenia and Related Disorders
Cat ownership before the age of 25 is associated with a two-fold greater risk of developing schizophrenia-related disorders, according to results from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Schizophrenia Bulletin.
Previous research on the relationships between cat ownership and the development of schizophrenia is mixed. Some studies have suggested that cat ownership may mitigate the risk for schizophrenia and psychotic-like experiences, while others have proposed that exposure to the intracellular protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii—commonly found in domestic cats—may instead raise that risk.
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For this study, the authors searched PubMed, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases for studies conducted between January 1, 1980, and May 30, 2023, that reported original data on cat-ownership before the age of 25 and schizophrenia-related outcomes. Pooled odds ratios (OR) were calculated as the primary risk measure, estimated via inverse-variance random-effects models.
Researchers included 17 studies in the final analysis. They identified an association between “broadly defined” cat ownership and odds of developing a schizophrenia-related disorder (unadjusted pooled OR 2.35 (95% CI: 1.38-4.01); adjusted pooled OR 2.24 (95% CI: 1.61-3.12).
“After adjusting for covariants, we found that individuals exposed to cats had approximately twice the odds of developing schizophrenia,” the investigators noted in the study.
The findings of this study may be limited by the inclusion of studies with high heterogeneity and low-quality scores.
“There is a need for more high-quality studies in this field,” the authors concluded.
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