If you are prone to fits of spontaneous rage, your feline might be responsible. Clawing the couch or knocking glasses off tables may do the trick, however a most likely system is that it, or a long dead predecessor, contaminated you with toxoplasmosis.

Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite already linked to numerous mental health problems, has actually been connected to another. Individuals contaminated by the parasite are twice as most likely to experience unreasonable rage attacks(such as road rage) as those without, University of Chicago scientists have actually asserted.

From a cats perspective T. gondii is more symbiont than parasite. Felines spread it to rodents, whose behavior changes to make them much easier to capture. Our feline housemates/owners don’t truly care if we get contaminated as well.

An approximated third of human beings have gotten the parasite from cells transferred in feline faeces, although this is decreasing, in the U.S.at least, with improving hygiene. Aside from pregnant women or individuals with weakened body immune systems, impacts are normally refined.

Epidemiological research studies have supplied evidence for personality changes as well as enhances in suicide. In 2014 feline ownership in childhood, a prime risk element for infection, was connected to higher rates of schizophrenia, although the study did not demonstrate a causal connection. Furthermore, being around cats is only one of the ways individuals capture toxoplasmosis. Consuming undercooked meat and drinking neglected water including the parasite are likewise understood threat elements.

^{Yes cats, you should feel sorry for inflicting this on us, after all we do for you. smit/Shutterstock}

In the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Dr. Emil Coccaro has reported on 358 adults assessed for intermittent explosive disorder (IED) and T. gondii antibodies in the blood, as part of a wider study of aggression. Results found 110 had IED, and 138 other psychiatric disorders.

Only 9 percent of the research studies controls were infected, but this rose to 22 percent for those with IED, a statistically substantial distinction. However, no association was found between infection status and inward-directed aggressiveness. Sixteen percent of the group were identified with other conditions, but the sample size was too little to check differences in between the numerous psychiatric disorders covered.

We do not know if this relationship is causal, and not everyone that tests positive for toxoplasmosis will have aggression issues,” Coccarro stressed in a statement. Indeed, the fact that so many of the control group carried the parasite indicates how common it is for those who are infected not to suffer.

“We don’t yet understand the mechanisms involved it could be an increased inflammatory response, direct brain modulation by the parasite, or even reverse causation where aggressive individuals tend to have more cats or eat more undercooked meat, added co-author Dr. Royce Lee Our study signals the need for more research and more evidence in humans.” The team hope to discover whether treatment of toxoplasmosis affects IED symptoms, defined as problematic outbursts of aggression disproportionate to the circumstances.

Correlation is not causation, and this is definitely not a sign that people should get rid of their cats, Lee said. Unless that is, its the cats misbehaviour, not its parasites, causing your rage.

Read more: https://www.iflscience.com/brain/are-you-suffering-cat-rage