One of the most interesting study I’ve ever read:
there appears to be a statistically significant relationship between depressed people and the frequency of cats being bitten. No joke.
The data from 1.3 million patients were evaluated, of whom an estimated 117,000 were suffering from depression. 750 patients were bitten by cats and 41.3% of these bite victims were also depressed. In contrast, out of 1108 dog bite victims, only 28.7% were depressed. Even more interesting: 85.5% of the depressed cat bite victims were female.
Now many will surely say: what a mess and I am always very careful with epidemiological studies, BUT one of the theses put forward by the researchers sounds relatively plausible:
Toxoplasma gondii, a typical cat parasite.
There have been studies that have shown that infection of humans with this parasite can lead to schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and even personality changes. The other theses say that simply because of their negative posture, depressed people are bitten more often or that they have cats more often. Eg in the case of lonely people. Now you will most likely say to yourself: “What an unnecessary study”. The researchers explicitly write that the initial number of depressed cat bite victims was very small and further studies would be necessary to elucidate this unusual phenomenon, but it could still be useful in clinical practice if one screened cat bite victims for depression. Whether too much depression is diagnosed,
I find the connection quite interesting and not quite so balanced. What do you all mean?
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0070585
