The researchers collected blood samples from 17 people with medically administered schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and a control group of 13 healthy adults to test for evidence of Bartonella infection, which is associated with cats exposed to fleas and potentially ticks.
Of the 17 patients with schizophrenia, 12 had Bartonella DNA in their blood, compared with only one of the 13 in the control group. Both groups reported pet ownership and similar flea exposures.
The study, published this month in the journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, was unable, by design, to show a causal link between Bartonella infection and schizophrenia. But the researchers plan to do a larger study to see if the preliminary results are confirmed.
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Erin Lashnits, who recently joined UW-Madison faculty, participated in the research while studying at North Carolina State University. Researchers have been examining the connection between bacterial infection and neuropsychiatric illness for some time, with some studies suggesting that cat ownership is associated with schizophrenia from a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis, said Lashnits.
“So we decided to look at another cat-borne infectious agent, Bartonella, to see if there could be a connection,” she said in a statement.
Bartonella are bacteria historically associated with cat scratch disease, also known as cat scratch fever, which until recently was considered only a short-term or self-limiting infection. In people, the condition may include a swelling or blister at the location of a cat’s bite or scratch, and the lymph nodes may swell. People can also feel tired and have a headache or fever.
“While there is an emerging understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases like schizophrenia as disorders of the brain networks, the question of the true causes remains unanswered,” said co-author Flavio Frohlich, associate professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine, in a statement. “As far as we know, this is the first paper that examines Bartonella’s potential role in schizophrenia.”
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