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Published on: August 12, 2010
Psychopathology in first-episode schizophrenia and antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii
S Bachmann1, J Schröder, C Bottmer
1Section of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, DE-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. silke_bachmann@med.uni-heidelberg.de
Objective:
Environmental factors such as infectious agents may contribute to the psychopathology and aetiology of schizophrenia. Toxoplasma gondii (TG) is a candidate infectious agent as it is known to replicate within the human central nervous system and to alter behaviour in experimental animals.
Method:
The relationship between antibodies to TG and psychopathological symptoms was examined in 34 first-episode patients with schizophrenia.
Results:
Results of regression analyses revealed that symptoms on admission, predictors of outcome, age and family history of psychiatric disease influenced the levels of antibodies to TG.
Conclusions:
These results indicate that TG infections may play a role in the clinical manifestation of psychopathology in a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia.
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