Toxoplasmosis is caused by Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908), a coccidian protist (Apicomplexa). It has a strong predilection for infecting the central nervous system. Researchers have therefore investigated its association with several neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar disorder, cerebral palsy, depression, Guillain-Barre syndrome, multiple sclerosis, obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson's disease, personality disorders, and schizophrenia. Among these disorders the strongest evidence for a role of T. gondii exists for psychosis in general and schizophrenia in particular. This paper reviews the origins of this association, briefly summarises the current evidence in support, and discusses future research strategies.

• MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• schizofrenie * MeSH
• Toxoplasma fyziologie   MeSH
• toxoplazmóza * komplikace   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH

Bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi s. l. and even more the protist Toxoplasma gondii Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908, are known to affect the behaviour and mental health of their animal and human hosts. Both pathogens infect a significant fraction of human population, both are neurotropic and survive in the host's body for a long time. While latent infections were thought to be clinically asymptomatic, recent studies suggest otherwise, revealing adverse effects on human health. It was hypothesised that the specific behavioural effects of these pathogens may be side effects of general health impairments in infected individuals. This hypothesis was tested using about one hour-long survey consisting of questionnaires and performance tests on a cohort of 7,762 members of the internet population. Results showed that individuals infected with T. gondii reported worse physical and mental health, and those infected with Borrelia spp. reported worse physical health than uninfected controls. Furthermore, infected and noninfected individuals differed in several personality traits, including conscientiousness, pathogen disgust, injury disgust, Machiavellianism, narcissism, tribalism, anti-authoritarianism, intelligence, reaction time, and precision. While the majority of behavioural effects associated with Borrelia infection were similar to those associated with Toxoplasma infection, some differences were observed, such as performance in the Stroop test. Path analyses and nonparametric partial Kendall correlation tests showed that these effects were not mediated by impaired health in infected individuals, contradicting the side effects hypothesis.

• MeSH
• Borrelia * MeSH
• infekce bakteriemi rodu Borrelia * komplikace   MeSH
• kognice MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• osobnost MeSH
• Toxoplasma * MeSH
• toxoplazmóza * komplikace   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

Humans infected by Toxoplasma gondii express no specific symptoms but manifest higher incidence of many diseases, disorders and differences in personality and behavior. The aim of this study was to compare the political beliefs and values of Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free participants. We measured beliefs and values of 2315 responders via an online survey (477 Toxoplasma-infected) using the Political Beliefs and Values Inventory (PI34). This study showed Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free participants of our cross-sectional study differed in three of four factors of PI34, scoring higher in Tribalism and lower in Cultural liberalism and Anti-Authoritarianism. We found sex differences in political beliefs associated with Toxoplasma infection. Infected women scored higher in tribalism and lower in cultural liberalism, compared with the Toxoplasma-free control group, while infected men scored higher in economic equity. These results fit with sexual differences in behavior and attitude observed after toxoplasmosis infection. Controlling for the effect of worse physical health and mental health had little impact, suggesting that impaired health did not cause these changes. Rather than adaptation to prevalence of parasites, as suggested by parasite-stress theory, the differences might be side-effects of long-term mild inflammatory reaction. However, to get clear picture of the mild inflammation effects, more research focused on different infectious diseases is needed.

• MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• osobnost MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• sexuální chování MeSH
• Toxoplasma * MeSH
• toxoplazmóza * komplikace   epidemiologie   parazitologie   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

• MeSH
• herpes simplex diagnóza   MeSH
• infekční komplikace v těhotenství * diagnóza   terapie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• těhotenství MeSH
• toxoplazmóza diagnóza   komplikace   MeSH
• zarděnky diagnóza   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• těhotenství MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• rozhovory MeSH

Numerous recent studies show that vitamin D deficiency potentiates various chronic physical and psychiatric disorders and diseases. It has been shown that a similar range of disorders is also associated with latent infection with Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908). For instance, among cancer, diabetes and schizophrenia patients, we find a higher prevalence of both toxoplasmosis and vitamin D deficiency. Theoretically, therefore, vitamin D deficiency could be the missing link between toxoplasmosis and these disorders. We tested this hypothesis by searching for decreased vitamin D levels in the serum of subjects infected with T. gondii (furthermore called Toxoplasma-infected subjects) in two cross-sectional and one case-control study. Results of the first cross-sectional study (N = 72) suggest that Toxoplasma-infected neurasthenic patients have non-significantly lower levels of calcidiol than Toxoplasma-free patients (study A: P = 0.26 in women, P = 0.68 in men). However, two other studies (study B: N = 400; study C: N = 191) showed a non-significantly higher concentration of vitamin D in Toxoplasma-infected subjects than in Toxoplasma-free subjects both in men (study B: P = 0.70, study C: P = 0.55) and in women (study B: P = 0.64, study C: P = 0.12). Taken together, our preliminary results thus do not support the hypothesis that toxoplasmosis could be associated with vitamin D decrease.

• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• duševní poruchy komplikace   MeSH
• kalcifediol krev   MeSH
• latentní infekce komplikace   MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• nedostatek vitaminu B etiologie   MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• schizofrenie komplikace   MeSH
• studie případů a kontrol MeSH
• Toxoplasma MeSH
• toxoplazmóza komplikace   MeSH
• vitamin D krev   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• duševní poruchy epidemiologie   etiologie   MeSH
• komorbidita MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• lymeská nemoc komplikace   epidemiologie   MeSH
• rizikové faktory MeSH
• toxoplazmóza komplikace   epidemiologie   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• dopisy MeSH

BACKGROUND: Latent toxoplasmosis, the life-long presence of dormant stages of Toxoplasma in immunoprivileged organs and of anamnestic IgG antibodies in blood, affects about 30% of humans. Infected subjects have an increased incidence of various disorders, including schizophrenia. Several studies, as well as the character of toxoplasmosis-associated disturbance of neurotransmitters, suggest that toxoplasmosis could also play an etiological role in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). METHODS: The aim of the present cross-sectional study performed on a population of 7471 volunteers was to confirm the association between toxoplasmosis and OCD, and toxoplasmosis and psychological symptoms of OCD estimated by the standard Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R). RESULTS: Incidence of OCD was 2.18% (n=39) in men and 2.28% (n=83) in women. Subjects with toxoplasmosis had about a 2.5 times higher odds of OCD and about a 2.7 times higher odds of learning disabilities. The incidence of 18 other neuropsychiatric disorders did not differ between Toxoplasma-infected and Toxoplasma-free subjects. The infected subjects, even the OCD-free subjects, scored higher on the OCI-R. LIMITATIONS: Examined subjects provided the information about their toxoplasmosis and OCD statuses themselves, which could result in underrating the strength of observed associations. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirmed earlier reports of the association between toxoplasmosis and OCD. They also support recent claims that latent toxoplasmosis is in fact a serious disease with many impacts on quality of life of patients.

• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• kočky MeSH
• kvalita života MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• neparametrická statistika MeSH
• obsedantně kompulzivní porucha diagnóza   parazitologie   psychologie   MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• schizofrenie diagnóza   parazitologie   MeSH
• Toxoplasma MeSH
• toxoplazmóza komplikace   přenos   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• kočky MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

• Klíčová slova
• tkáňoví paraziti,
• MeSH
• alergie MeSH
• Amoeba klasifikace   patogenita   MeSH
• Anoplura účinky léků   MeSH
• cerkárie patogenita   MeSH
• dirofilarióza etiologie   patologie   MeSH
• dítě MeSH
• echinokokóza etiologie   přenos   MeSH
• giardiáza MeSH
• infestace roztoči klasifikace   komplikace   patologie   MeSH
• komunikace MeSH
• kryptosporidióza diagnóza   terapie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mikrosporidióza etiologie   MeSH
• parazitární nemoci střev epidemiologie   klasifikace   MeSH
• parazitární nemoci * diagnóza   epidemiologie   imunologie   klasifikace   MeSH
• Pneumocystis carinii patogenita   MeSH
• prevalence MeSH
• protozoální infekce klasifikace   MeSH
• schistosomóza parazitologie   patologie   terapie   MeSH
• toxokaróza diagnóza   etiologie   patologie   MeSH
• Toxoplasma patogenita   MeSH
• toxoplazmóza komplikace   patologie   prevence a kontrola   MeSH
• zoonózy MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dítě MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• přehledy MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Česká republika MeSH

Changes in behaviour and cognition have been associated with latent infection from the apicomplexan protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908) in both animal and human studies. Further, neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia have also been associated with latent toxoplasmosis. Previously, we found no association between T. gondii immunoglobulin G antibody (IgG) seropositivity and depression in human adults between the ages of 20 and 39 years (n = 1 846) in a sample representative of the United States collected by the Centers for Disease Control as part of a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from three datasets collected between 1999-2004. In the present study, we used NHANES data collected between 2009 and 2012 that included subjects aged 20 to 80 years (n = 5 487) and used the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) to assess depression with the overall aim of testing the stability of the results of the prior study. In the current study, the seroprevalence of T. gondii was 13%. The percentage of subjects reporting clinical levels of depression assessed with the PHQ-9 was 8%. As before, we found no association between T. gondii IgG seroprevalence and depression (OR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.81-1.25; p = 0.944) while controlling for sex, educational attainment, race-ethnicity, age, poverty-to-income ratio and cigarette smoking. We also found no positive associations between anti-T. gondii antibody titre and depression (OR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.96-1.06; p = 0.868). Moreover, we found no association between T. gondii seroprevalence or antibody titre and suicidal ideation (seroprevalence: OR = 1.22, 95% CI = .85-1.75; p = 0.277, titre: OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.98-1.14; p = 0.177). Defining depression to also include subjects currently taking antidepressant medication even with non-elevated questionnaires did not find evidence of a positive association between latent toxoplasmosis and depression. In the present study, neither T. gondii seroprevalence nor anti-T. gondii antibody titre was positively associated with depression or suicidal ideation among subjects aged 20 to 80 years.

• MeSH
• deprese komplikace   MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• imunoglobulin G krev   MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• protilátky protozoální krev   MeSH
• průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
• rizikové faktory MeSH
• senioři nad 80 let MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• séroepidemiologické studie MeSH
• Toxoplasma MeSH
• toxoplazmóza krev   komplikace   patologie   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé středního věku MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• senioři nad 80 let MeSH
• senioři MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH

The global seroprevalence of latent toxoplasmosis is estimated to be higher than 30%. The presence of slowly dividing parasites in tissue cysts located mainly in immunoprivileged organs was long considered asymptomatic. Recently, many studies have shown that latent Toxoplasma infections could have serious impacts on human health. Here we ran a cross-sectional study in a population of 1486 volunteers. The results showed that 333 infected subjects scored worse than 1153 controls in 28 of 29 health-related variables. Similarly, they reported higher rates of 77 of a list of 134 disorders reported by at least 10 participants of the study. Toxoplasmosis was associated most strongly with musculoskeletal (τ = 0·107, P < 0·0005), followed by neurological (τ = 0·088, P < 0·0005), immune (τ = 0·085, p < 0·0005), metabolic (τ = 0·079, P < 0·0005), respiratory (τ = 0·068, P = 0·0001), allergic (τ = 0·053, P = 0·004), digestive system (τ = 0·052, P = 0·004) and mental health disorders (τ = 0·050, P = 0·008). Results of the present cohort study, along with the previous data from many case-control studies or ecological studies suggest that latent toxoplasmosis represents a large and so far underrated public health problem.

• MeSH
• dospělí MeSH
• incidence MeSH
• kohortové studie MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• parazitární zátěž MeSH
• protilátky protozoální krev   MeSH
• průřezové studie MeSH
• rizikové faktory MeSH
• séroepidemiologické studie MeSH
• studie případů a kontrol MeSH
• Toxoplasma imunologie   izolace a purifikace   patogenita   MeSH
• toxoplazmóza komplikace   epidemiologie   parazitologie   přenos   MeSH
• veřejné zdravotnictví MeSH
• zdravotní stav * MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• dospělí MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• mladý dospělý MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH