Slashdot Mirror
Owning a Cat Does Not Lead To Mental Illness, Study Finds (theverge.com)
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.
Yup and its a trip when on shrooms and around them.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Mine likes to hide behind a door and then pounce on my leg as I innocently walk by in my bathrobe. He's EVIL.
Does mental illness lead to owning a cat, though?
But as the keeper of a Siamese I have to argue against this. He literally drives my wife crazy some mornings and that shit can't be good for her. It causes a lot of stress to be honest. I still blame her for caving to the cats whining because once you give in once, you just lost that battle forever more.
She says she just loves him so much. Highest maintenance cat I've ever had and I've always lived with cats.
I heard this somewhere: "Dogs have owners, cats have staff."
Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe
I trust my familiar. I he says cats don't cause mental illness, I believe him.
I denounce the speciism displayed by Slashdot. What about the cats? Don't they need years of therapy after having been, gasp, owned by fugly, smelly, bizarre bipeds without feathers but with ample delusions of grandeur?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
crazy starts at 20 cats and obscenely crazy 150+
Shandilay! At least I think that is the customary response.
However if they study "if being owned by a cat causes mental illness?" they will find overwhelming support. Delusional thinking that they actually own the cats is the most common symptom.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
This study is very limited; it goes only up to age 18. It says absolutely nothing about whether toxoplasma will turn you into a cat lady.
Those of who have cats know they are our masters. My Devine holiness has informed me of my servitude.
If anything, I have become more balanced centered and connected with our Universe.
My master calls.
Sorry, tracking until age 18 isn't long enough. Schizophrenia will show up a bit later if it does. Also, *having* a cat in the house is one thing - how many kids are cleaning the litterbox? Because that's the danger zone.
For those who are unaware, Toxoplasma gondii has a life cycle that relies on cats and their prey - typically rats or mice. In cats, it reproduces in the digestive system and gets crapped out. In rodents who come into contact with the cat crap, it infects their brain and makes them less afraid of cats, which benefits the parasite because it wants to end up in a cat's digestive system again.
In humans, it definitely causes miscarriages. There have been studies suggesting a link to schizophrenia, but I don't believe that's the current consensus. Something like 50% of all humans have been exposed to it, so it would be scary if so. But it might also depend on other factors.
It's conceivable that a parasite that has evolved to control host behavior could have adverse psychological effects on human hosts, thus the research into it.
Do you have ESP?
A study is needed to survey 100 'crazy cat people" (let's be equal opportunity here), to see when and how they got started. Get a blood sample to test for the parasite. Just don't tell a crazy person they have bugs in their brain.
The study does not mention how many of the *researchers* own or were exposed to cats...
My cat overlord orders me to add that the thought of cats causing mental illness is ridiculous. Humans are mentally ill naturally.
The people who did this study never met the lady who lives on the end of my block. She's completely cuckoo and owns like a hundred cats. Sometimes they wander over to my yard just to get away from the old bat. I'll bet if I walk outside right now, there'll be one sitting on the cushion on one of my deck chairs. He likes to hang out with me when I sit outside at night and watch the basketball game. Wait, does that mean I own a cat? Holy shit. I better get myself checked out.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Plus, the hair. Their hair gets EVERYWHERE, every-fucking-where. It ends up on your clothes, bedding, towels, food, furniture, carpets, bathroom- everywhere. You open the refrigerator and take out a plate of something, and there's cat hair in or on it.
You can largely fix this by 'shaving' them. You don't have to use a razor or anything, just standard hair clippers and cut their hair shorter.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
It means the husband is stuck cleaning out the litter box, I would presume.
Get real. Nobody owns a cat. Cats consider that to be disrespectful. They are just free spirits and the world is their litter box.
I want to see a study about exposure to the environment through outdoor animals like cats. Also a diferentiation as to their expose to cats: life long, only childhood, adulthood only, etc... as well as the persons lifelong heath history.
Cats are always cleaning themselves and like dogs their mouths and saliva are super sterilizing if not antibiotic as compared to humans. But they do pick up some contaminants and so they do give you some expose. My guess is that on a whole it's actually beneficial to your health provided you don't already have a weakened immune system..
You can largely fix this by 'shaving' them. You don't have to use a razor or anything, just standard hair clippers and cut their hair shorter.
As enjoyable and rewarding as that sounds it still won't fully eliminate the hair, and there's still the problem of them walking through the litter box and then tracking the residue all over your counters, furniture, bed, etc etc etc.
I love cats but they just aren't allowed to live in my home.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
150 is a lot of cat's but about about that one with 200 or the with 1,100?
Toxoplasmosis infection makes rats lose their fear of cats. Beneficial to both the toxo and the hungry cats:
http://www.nature.com/news/par...
Toxo in people is associated with traffic accidents... slow reflexes? Lack of fear? Distracted by cat? Probably not psychosis, though:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
Dateline did a show about a missing woman who recklessly invited many dangerous men into her life, ignoring all the red flags her friends were trying to get her to see. She was a cat lady, too...
That, when you were standing, would sneak up behind you and climb your pants, your shirt, then perch on your shoulder. Hard on the clothes, and sometimes painful, but cute as hell.
My sister had a kitten that would sit on your shoulder and suck your earlobe. A very weird feeling, but she was a hell of a kitten.
My current cat? Takes a dump in the litter box, then while trying to bury it kicks it onto the floor. sigh.
Schrodinger owned a cat, did they call him crazy? I don't think so...
First, disproving "psychosis" is not as broad as disproving "mental illness."
Second, a study that fails to find an association does not prove the lack of an association, as the summary title says. Imagine this: if I sell refined sugar, and I want to suggest it is not associated with tooth decay, I fund a _small_ study to test the hypothesis "sugar causes tooth decay." The study is too small to conclusively prove the hypothesis, and I can report "study fails to find link between sugar and tooth decay."
Cats go on auto-pilot well.
Dogs destroy when left alone too long.
My friend's dog is a PITA. Chases and kills wildlife, chases deer. He thinks it's "great".
He wants to take it camping and fishing. Would I (in turn) take my damned cat and foist it on him?
There's a reason people that own one cat go crazy and have brain damage and end up owning more of those things.
The Toxoplasma Gondii requires cats to multiply, so it alters the behavior of its host rodents in order to steer them towards a cat's digestive system.
Now, humans and cats have lived together for millenia; it makes perfect sense that the Toxoplasma Gondii might also have steered us into giving their furry brothels a comfortable place in our homes and our beds... And for the cats, they have two species directly feeding them: Mice and Men. Perfect case of symbiotic evolution.
You'll never see Lassie do anything that smart.
Now, back to the parent post about working at PetSmart:
I've seen coworkers that were normal before become irritable and irrational after getting a cat.
Are you sure that's not just caused by working retail for long enough?
And then there was me, working at Home Depot, wearing the trademark Orange Apron. We had a cat in the store; it ate the mice that lived on the birdseed in the Seasonal Department. As I walked into the lunchroom, about 30 people eating lunch, big shift change time of day...
"Hey Lawrence! I hear you found the store cat!"
"Well, I found part of the store cat..."
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The title refers to 'mental illness', the summary adds 'psychosis' and finally links 'schizophrenia' to the bug. These are not interchangeable; each term is rather clearly defined in a science environment. Moving on to the actual study there are also vacillations between these terms. It's one of many things that casts doubt on the quality of the study.
You may also find a report at WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com... Where they have a lovely video of the rat/cat relationship that develops.
...omphaloskepsis often...
You need the best cat brush, a lint roller, pack of 6 for 2 bucks at Ikea, my cat Loves rubbing against one of these, and it gets all the loose fur off, when covered in fur, peel, and presto, whole new sticky surface, I only have to start the peel, then my cat grabs the end in his mouth and rest off for me, best investment ever!
While it is true that *some* patient will have an age onset of psychopathology later in life (e.g. 40 to 50 is the number I see most popping up as secondary peak), the majority will have an age onset between 17 and 20, because that's the period of growth of the brain where it is vulnerable. Usually later in life it is poorly understood , as it seems to come from a different etiology. e.g. See here for onset statistic for example of schizophrenia as one psychopathology : http://www.schizophrenia.com/p... (A typological model of schizophrenia based on age at onset, sex and familial morbidity. Acta Psychyatric Scandinavica 89, 135-141 (1994).)
As such the study is not flawed, since the onset for most psychopathology is early age. Now if you were talking for other pathology, senescence related, like dementia or Alzheimer , you would have a point, but this is NOT what the study is about.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Apparently, they're conducting studies now.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
all the schizo people i know have cats
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Get an automatic litter box like the Litter Robot. We have one of those and they work as advertised: easy to change and to clean, and no more smells. The only drawback is that they are fairly bulky; mine fits snugly in a 60x80cm cabinet space reserved for a washing machine. They are pricey but I'm still using the one I bought almost 15 years ago.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Ok, where have you hidden the spycam in my house?
many of these studies asked people whether they remembered having cats
So the original studies asked crazy people if they ever owned cats? what did they expect?
So owning three cats dooms me? Shrug. They add to my quality of life enough that a shorter life is a worthwhile trade.
Based on the many, many women I've known (both biblically...
Since we're bragging on the internet, I'm so ripped I have a 9 pack, can bench press two bull elephants and am so large I have to be careful to not cause major internal organ damage.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
There's a reason people that own one cat go crazy and have brain damage and end up owning more of those things.
See how memes persist even when scientific evidence comes along that refutes them? It's true because you wish it were true.
"... am so large I have to be careful to not cause major internal organ damage."
Yes, I know people who have similar trouble squeezing through doorways. At least get the step counting app.
Cats are symptom of Crazy, not a cause.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Are we talking about mental illness for the owner, or for the cat?
But next week scientists will decide that cats will be responsible for the extinction of the human species.
E Proelio Veritas.
Cats are not really pack animals but understand social hierarchy. If you let a cat rule the house they will, but if you are dominant (not to be confused with being an asshole) cats are fine. Dogs are pack animals who similarly need structure with you on top of the social structure. Social needs like playtime and grooming time have to accompany the normal duties of food, water, and litter/walks.
I see plenty of cat and dog owners that let their pets run the house. They tend to complain about how "bad" their pets are, in between excusing bouts of bad behavior.
Animal psychology is really not that difficult, but as with many subjects people don't educate themselves. A similar, if not same, type of person will often treat their kids like adults and want to be their friends instead of parents. Problems always tend to be directed at the external entity instead of themselves.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
If you were to do a serious study I think you would find a decreased likelihood in voting for Trump in cat ownership, statistically.
I say this simply because there's already been serious studies that match cat owners to the left wing and dog owners to the right. Even though Trump is arguably more of an old-school Democrat than a core Republican the voters are what we're talking about, and without a doubt Trump was elected by the more conservative of those of any alignment than the progressive.
I believe if you were to do a serious study of comparing Hillary voters to Trump voters you would see a pattern of dogs/no pets to Trump versus cats to Hillary/Stein. I don't think the break-out would be phenomenal, but I do think you would see a pattern, 60/40 or so. I leave Johnson out of this because this time around he lost his rudder and nobody could tell where he belong on the alignment charts unlike his previous run.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
if your cat isn't driving you crazy, there's something wrong with the cat. return it to the place of purchase and demand a replacement.
A well taken care of cat in a well taken care of environment isn't so scary. Clean the box once a day, it takes three minutes. Fully scrub and change out the littler once a month. Get a Shark vacuum cleaner for the hair, vacuum the floors, furniture and crevices once a week. Keep food related surfaces clean. Learn how to keep your cat off the counters, tables, etc.
Certainly you can't ever be perfectly assured of absolute cleanliness, but that's true of any pet. Dogs are by no means clean without effort.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
cause its true...
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
A well taken care of cat in a well taken care of environment isn't so scary. Clean the box once a day, it takes three minutes. Fully scrub and change out the littler once a month. Get a Shark vacuum cleaner for the hair, vacuum the floors, furniture and crevices once a week. Keep food related surfaces clean. Learn how to keep your cat off the counters, tables, etc.
Or I can just skip all that by not having a cat.
-
Certainly you can't ever be perfectly assured of absolute cleanliness
I can be perfectly assured of not having cat-related cleanliness issues by not having a cat.
If you want to keep a cat, have at it. I like cats, I just don't want them living in my home. I've owned cats in the past, but no more.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Tricksy they are, yes
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The point is, it's possible to have a cat and a clean house. I'm not sure it takes any more work than a dog. Certainly I don't think you should have one if you don't want one.
"Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
- Deep Thought
The main way people get toxoplasma is from food, especially undercooked meat and unwashed vegetables. But the media makes you think it's from cats because the headline "Cats Make You Crazy" is much better clickbait than "Eating Undercooked Meat Makes You Crazy". Transmission from cats is much rarer. Also, cats get infected by eating infected mice. If you have indoor cats who eat Friskies instead of mice, they aren't at risk and neither are you. Unless you eat undercooked meat, of course, but the media would rather warn you about fake risks than real ones.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Unfortunately, no one could repeat the study to validate the claims.
Isn't there a test and a pill they can give to cats and people? Who wants these fricken parasites in them anyway.
Because trying to get pussy can drive a person insane.
Oh... You meant a cat. Nevermind.
Or better, three, to start with.