This link between cats and mental illness is growing, disturbingly, stronger and stronger.
A new study found that a bacterium known to cause cat fever fever – so-called cats’ tendency to spread it through bites and scratches – is found in the bloodstream of schizophrenics more often than in those without a mental disorder.
The research, published this month in the journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, looked at only a small number of people and is not definitive. But it adds to a growing body of work, which claims that infection with Bartonella bacteria can cause neurological problems.
“Our research to date continues to support a role for Bartonella species as a cause or co-factor in neuropsychiatric diseases,” study author Edward Breitschwerdt, who has been studying bacteria for years, told Gizmodo. “There is a lot of work that needs to be done to clarify these preliminary results.”
Breitschwerdt previously worked on a study of a 14-year-old boy in the Midwest who suddenly began to feel psychosis-like symptoms after being scratched by his cat.
“Historically, before the onset of psychiatric symptoms, the boy was socially active, athletically and academically, as evidenced by participation in national competitions in geography and history and a major actor in a school play, winning a prize in fencing and obtaining grades excellent in classes ”, reported a 2019 study conducted by Breitschwerdt on the boy, who was initially diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He was once placed in a psychiatric garden for a week, after he said he was a “son of hell, damn it,” according to a report at the time.
Doctors quickly began investigating the boy’s medical records, hoping for answers that would explain the boy’s sudden bizarre behavior.
After many years in and out of hospitals, they discovered that he was in fact suffering from a Bartonella infection. After receiving antibiotics to treat the infection, the boy recovered “completely”.
Late last year, Breitschwerdt published a study in the journal Pathogens in which 33 participants, 29 of whom were found to be infected with Bartonella, reported neuropsychiatric symptoms. The results of the study also reported evidence of a link between bacteria and mental illness.