ArticleParasites & vectors2016
Cat scratches, not bites, are associated with unipolar depression--cross-sectional study.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond Latency: ChronicBiomedicines · 2025Review
- Thirty years of studying latent toxoplasmosis: behavioural, physiological, and health insights.Folia parasitologica · 2025Review
- Toxoplasma gondii, suicidal behaviour and suicide risk factors in US Veterans enrolled in mental health treatment.Folia parasitologica · 2025Article
- Article
- Unanswered Questions and Hypotheses about Domestic Cat Behavior, Ecology, and the Cat-Human Relationship.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Review
- Examining the Relationship betweenPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Toxoplasma gondii seropositivity in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
- Neurological and Neurobehavioral Disorders Associated withJournal of parasitology research · 2021Review
- Review
- Childhood Cat Bites Relate to Increased Adulthood Severity of Schizotypy, Psychotic-Like Experiences, and Social Anhedonia in a Transdiagnostic Psychiatric Sample.Psychopathology · 2020Article
- Toxoplasmosis and mental disorders in the Russian Federation (with special reference to schizophrenia).PloS one · 2019Article
- Article
- Negative Effects of Latent Toxoplasmosis on Mental Health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Depressiveness and Neuroticism in Bartonella Seropositive and Seronegative Subjects-Preregistered Case-Controls Study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Toxoplasma gondii infection and common mental disorders in the Finnish general population.Journal of affective disorders · 2017Article
- Predictors of Toxoplasma gondii infection in Czech and Slovak populations: the possible role of cat-related injuries and risky sexual behavior in the parasite transmission.Epidemiology and infection · 2017Article
- Article
- Positive association betweenPteridines · 2017Article
- Health status by gender, hair color, and eye color: Red-haired women are the most divergent.PloS one · 2017Article
- What flowers do we like? The influence of shape and color on the rating of flower beauty.PeerJ · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA recent study performed on 1.3 million patients showed a strong association between being bitten by a cat and probability of being diagnosed with depression. Authors suggested that infection with cat parasite Toxoplasma could be the reason for this association.
methodA cross sectional internet study on a non-clinical population of 5,535 subjects was undertaken.
resultsThe subjects that reported having been bitten by a dog and a cat or scratched by a cat have higher Beck depression score. They were more likely to have visited psychiatrists, psychotherapists and neurologists in past two years, to have been previously diagnosed with depression (but not with bipolar disorder). Multivariate analysis of models with cat biting, cat scratching, toxoplasmosis, the number of cats at home, and the age of subjects as independent variables showed that only cat scratching had positive effect on depression (p = 0.004). Cat biting and toxoplasmosis had no effect on the depression, and the number of cats at home had a negative effect on depression (p = 0.021).
conclusionsAbsence of association between toxoplasmosis and depression and five times stronger association of depression with cat scratching than with cat biting suggests that the pathogen responsible for mood disorders in animals-injured subjects is probably not the protozoon Toxoplasma gondii but another organism; possibly the agent of cat-scratched disease - the bacteria Bartonella henselae.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.