Schizophrenia and Toxoplasma gondii: an undervalued association?

Abstract

The existence of an association between schizophrenia and an infection by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii has been suspected since the 1950s. Two significant phenomena first garnered the attention of the psychiatric community toward toxoplasmosis, the illness precipitated by an infection of the parasite. Transient symptoms of acute toxoplasmosis sometimes resemble the clinical picture of paranoid schizophrenia. Many studies have also found an increased seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in clients of mental health institutions in comparison with members of control populations. We have had to wait until the first decade of our millennium for several independent research teams to make discoveries that would shed light on the possible mechanisms that link the Toxoplasma parasite to schizophrenia.

Keywords:

• dopamine
• manipulation hypothesis
• mental disorder
• parasite
• schizophrenia
• toxoplasmosis

Financial & competing interests disclosure

J Flegr was supported by Czech Science Foundation (Project No. P303/11/1398). Neither this agency nor other subject had any influence on designing or interpreting the author’s studies or writing present article. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.