Dear Jonathan,
You said: << One leading medical researcher has devoted his career to the theory that toxoplasm gondii, from cats, particularly their excrement, is a leading, though not sole, cause of schizophrenia. The recent issue of Esquire features an article about this MD. Those who are interested will find it readily enough. Bottom line: cats (and dogs) kept in the house pose risks to their owners.>> ** Jonathan, the way this is worded can be misleading. The most recent journal article about this is from Psychopathology 2005;38:87–90. In the introduction the article states: "It is widely accepted that multiple factors are involved in the aetiology of schizophrenia and its psychopathology. Family and adoption studies support a genetic component to disease risk. Epidemiological studies have shown that environmental factors such as perinatal infections, urban birth and winter-spring birth can also play a role [1] . Toxoplasma gondii (TG) has been identified as a candidate infectious agent related to schizophrenia [2] ." Further on in the introduction the authors state (asterisks mine for emphasis): "We have previously shown an increased level of antibodies to TG in individuals with first-episode schizophrenia as compared to a control group (p < 0.1–0.2) [8] . *** While this increase did not reach the significance level***, a similar finding was published by Gu et al. [9] . In the present study, we therefore asked whether antibodies to TG are associated with the clinical psychopathological presentation and response to treatment of individuals with first-episode schizophrenia." The authors presented three possibilities for the presence of TG antibodies. They then state: "The first possibility can be ruled out in first-episode patients who have received little or no treatment. The second and third hypotheses may be linked to one another but can neither be proven nor disproven with the current data and they warrant further studies. One possibility is that endogenous retroviruses may serve as a link between activation of TG infections and psychosis [20] . A major limitation of the present study is the crosssectional design. As early as 1956, Wende [21] cautioned that TG positivity only proves that an infection has occurred but does not establish a causal relationship between the current disease and TG. Sufficient proof has to include high antibody titres and titre fluctuations via serial examinations. Despite their limitations, our results explain more than half of the variance of IgM antibodies to TG. Since these are acute-phase antibodies, their presence in first-episode schizophrenia patients suggests an influence of TG in the causes of schizophrenic psychopathology. Our results need further testing and a replication is currently under way." [citations below signature] ** There have been other studies prior to this one that showed nothing more than this did. My point is that statements that TG is a "leading cause of schizophrenia" or that causality between TG and schizophrenia has been proven, could have people believing things for which there is no definitive evidence at this time. I've cc'd this to the OT list in case of further discussion. Regards, Catherine 1 Torrey EF, Rawlings R, Yolken RH: The antecedants of psychoses: A case-control study of selected risk factors. Schizophr Res 2000; 46: 17–23. 2 Torrey EF, Yolken RH: Toxoplasma gondii may contribute to the aetiology of schizophrenia. Emerg Infect Dis, in press. 8 Yolken RH, Bachmann S, Rouslanova I, Lillehoj E, Ford G, Torrey EF, Schröder J: Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in individuals with first-episode schizophrenia. Clin Infect Dis 2001; 32: 842–844. 9 Gu H, Yolken RH, Phillips M, Yang F, Bilder RM, Gilmore JH, Lieberman JA: Evidence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in recent-onset schizophrenia (abstract). Schizophr Res 2001; 49: 53. 20 Karlsson H, Bachmann S, Schröder J, McArthur J, Torrey EF, Yolken RH: Retroviral RNA identified in the cerebrospinal fluids and brains of individuals with schizophrenia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2001; 98: 4634–4639. 21 Wende S: Die Bedeutung der Toxoplasmose für die Neurologie und Psychiatrie. Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr Z Gesamte Neurol Psychiatr 1956; 194: 179–199. -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
