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Owning a Cat Does Not Lead To Mental Illness, Study Finds (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sigh-of-relief dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Cats host a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that other research has linked to various mental illnesses. So, for some time, people have wondered whether cats are unsafe; for example, pregnant women are usually told to stay away from litter boxes. (They should still do this because transmission during pregnancy is very real.) In a study published in the journal Psychological Medicine, researchers looked at data that tracked 5,000 Brits born in the early '90s until they were 18. This included information about whether the kids grew up with cats, or whether there were cats around when the mother was pregnant. After the scientists controlled for factors like socioeconomic status, there was no link between developing psychosis and having owned a cat. The researchers suggest that previous studies that did show a link had relatively small sample sizes. In addition, many of these studies asked people whether they remembered having cats, which is not quite as accurate. That said, it's important to keep in mind that some mental disorders linked to the parasite -- like schizophrenia -- tend to be diagnosed fairly late in life, so only tracking until age 18 might limit the study.

2 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Cats have othe ways to make you crazy by SpankiMonki · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Mine likes to hide behind a door and then pounce on my leg as I innocently walk by in my bathrobe. He's EVIL.

  2. I take care of wildcats for a decade++ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    See my subject: If it makes me 'mentally ill' then how can I produce work like APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-7 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/ that many folks here (& many 1,000's) like & use (+ that malwarebytes' folks host + recommend) per our /. peers in https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10280229&cid=53913023/ & https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10280229&cid=53913235/ ?

    Ontop of some of my work's in successfully decades long certified Microsoft partner's commercially sold work that was a FINALIST 2 yrs. in a row @ MS TechEd 2000-2002 in its hardest category SQLServer Performance Enhancement (& I made THAT even 40% better on 2 levels (code & how to exploit it fully).

    APK

    P.S.=> IF that's "crazy" on my end? I bet most wish they were THAT 'crazy'... apk