Arch Gen Psychiatry. Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Self-directed Violence in Mothers

[Giuseppe]

[Source: Archives of General Psychiatry, full text: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]

Original Article| Nov 2012

Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Self-directed Violence in Mothers


Marianne G. Pedersen, MSc; Preben Bo Mortensen, DrMedSc; Bent Norgaard-Pedersen, DrMedSc; Teodor T. Postolache, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2012;69(11):1123-1130. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2012.668.



ABSTRACT

Context

Two studies based on clinical samples have found an association between Toxoplasma gondii infection and history of suicide attempt. To our knowledge, these findings have never been replicated in a prospective cohort study.


Objective

To examine whether T gondii? infected mothers have an increased risk of self-directed violence, violent suicide attempts, and suicide and whether the risk depends on the level of T gondii IgG antibodies.


Design

Register-based prospective cohort study. Women were followed up from the date of delivery, 1992 to 1995 until 2006.


Setting

Denmark.


Participants

A cohort of 45 788 women born in Denmark whose level of Toxoplasma -specific IgG antibodies was measured in connection with child birth between 1992 and 1995.


Main Outcome Measures

Incidence rates of self-directed violence, violent suicide attempts, and suicide in relation to T gondii seropositivity and serointensity.


Results

T gondii? infected mothers had a relative risk of self-directed violence of 1.53 (95% CI, 1.27-1.85) compared with noninfected mothers, and the risk seemed to increase with increasing IgG antibody level. For violent suicide attempts, the relative risk was 1.81 (95% CI, 1.13-2.84) and for suicide, 2.05 (95% CI, 0.78-5.20). A similar association was found for repetition of self-directed violence, with a relative risk of 1.54 (95% CI, 0.98-2.39).


Conclusion

Women with a T gondii infection have an increased risk of self-directed violence.
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[Emily]

Re: Arch Gen Psychiatry. Toxoplasma gondii Infection and Self-directed Violence in Mothers

Toxo may control host behavior regardless of sex.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/sapolsky09/sapolsky09_index.html

TOXO [12.4.09]
A Conversation with Robert Sapolsky

[ROBERT SAPOLSKY:] In the endless sort of struggle that neurobiologists have — in terms of free will, determinism — my feeling has always been that there's not a whole lot of free will out there, and if there is, it's in the least interesting places and getting more sparse all the time. But there's a whole new realm of neuroscience which I've been thinking about, which I'm starting to do research on, that throws in another element of things going on below the surface affecting our behavior. And it's got to do with this utterly bizarre world of parasites manipulating our behavior. It turns out that this is not all that surprising. There are all sorts of parasites out there that get into some organism, and what they need to do is parasitize the organism and increase the likelihood that they, the parasite, will be fruitful and multiply, and in some cases they can manipulate the behavior of the host.
[snip]
A few years ago, I sat down with a couple of the Toxo docs over in our hospital who do the Toxo testing in the Ob/Gyn clinics. And they hadn't heard about this behavioral story, and I'm going on about how cool and unexpected it is. And suddenly, one of them jumps up, flooded with 40-year-old memories, and says, "I just remembered back when I was a resident, I was doing a surgical transplant rotation. And there was an older surgeon, who said, if you ever get organs from a motorcycle accident death, check the organs for Toxo. I don't know why, but you find a lot of Toxo." And you could see this guy was having a rush of nostalgic memories from back when he was 25 and all because he was being told this weird factoid ... ooh, people who die in motorcycle accidents seem to have high rates of Toxo. Utterly bizarre....