Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii Among Schizophrenics at Hospital Kajang
- 1 University Putra Malaysia 43400, Malaysia
- 2 University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract
Studies have found a high seroprevalence of T. gondii in schizophrenia patients than controls. This case-control study was done to determine the serprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii and to identify its risk factors among schizophrenia patients at Hospital Kajang. Eighty-eight (88) schizophrenia patients and 88 non-psychiatric controls were examined for the presence of anti-Toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Questionnaires were used to collect socio-demographic and behavioral data among the respondents. From the results, the seroprevalence of anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies was significantly higher (51.0%) in schizophrenia patients than in controls (30.7%); (OR = 2.01; 95% CI: 2.16-3.01; p = 0.023. There was no significant association between the socio-demographic factors and toxoplasmosis. Beef consumption (p = 0.004, OR = 3.852, CI: 1.550-9.569), pork consumption (p<0.001, OR = 13.089, 95%CI: 4.730-36.219) and risky cat contact (p = 0.047, OR = 4.061, 95% CI: 1.985-16.745), were found to be significantly associated with T. gondii infection. Our results show that there is a relationship between toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajidsp.2013.11.16
Copyright: © 2013 Lovetta Yatta Juanah, Juliana Jalaludin, Malina Osman and Zubaidah Jamil Osman. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Toxoplasma Gondii
- Schizophrenia
- Seroprevalence
- Socio-Demographic Risk Factors
- Environmental Risk Factors