This connection between kittens and mental illness is, disturbingly, getting stronger and stronger.
A new study found that a bacterium known to cause cat-scratch fever disease – named after cats’ propensity to spread through bites and scratches – is found in the bloodstream of schizophrenics more often than those without mental disorder.
The research, published this month in the journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, looked at only a small number of people and is not definitive. But that contributes to a growing body of work that maintains that being infected with the Bartonella bacteria can cause neurological problems.
“Our research to date continues to support the role of Bartonella species as a cause or cofactor in neuropsychiatric disease,” study author Edward Breitschwerdt, who has studied the bacterium for years, told Gizmodo. “There is a lot of work to be done to clarify these preliminary results.”
Breitschwerdt previously worked on a study of a 14-year-old boy from the Midwest who suddenly started showing symptoms similar to psychosis after being scratched by his cat.
“Historically, before the onset of psychiatric symptoms, the boy was socially, athletic and academically active, as evidenced by his participation in national geography and history competitions, and a leading actor in a school play, winning a fencing award and obtaining excellent grades in the course, ”A 2019 study by Breitschwerdt reported on the boy, who was initially diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He was once placed under psychiatric imprisonment for a week after saying he was a “damned son of the devil”, according to a report at the time.
Doctors quickly began to rummage through the boy’s medical records, hoping to get answers that would explain the boy’s bizarre behavior.
After many years in and out of hospitals, they discovered that, in fact, he was suffering from a Bartonella infection. After receiving antibiotics to treat the infection, the boy had a “full” recovery.
At the end of last year, Breitschwerdt published a study in the journal Pathogens in which 33 participants, 29 of whom were infected with Bartonella, self-reported neuropsychiatric symptoms. The findings of that study also reported evidence of a connection between the bacterium and mental illness.