Posted on 11/16/2025 10:54:34 AM PST by fwdude
Having a cat as a pet could potentially double a person's risk of schizophrenia-related conditions, according to an analysis of 17 studies.
Psychiatrist John McGrath and colleagues at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research in Australia looked at papers published over the last 44 years in 11 countries, including the US and the UK.
Their 2023 study found "a significant positive association between broadly defined cat ownership and an increased risk of schizophrenia-related disorders."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
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Cats - Segovia - Bach
https://youtu.be/1u_8wtJCM8M
I have 3 too. Looks like I’m in trouble.
Cat ladies are in danger, they keep the cats near at hand, sleeping and awake. Barn cats maintain a decent interval.
Are cause and effect being confused here?
It may be that people who have schizophrenia are much more likely to choose a cat - an easily obtained, easy to care for, affordable animal that will give them attention and which they can keep indoors and never have to walk outside - as a pet.
And that this research comes from Australia where they have a heightened animosity towards non-native invasive species like rabbits, camels and cats and so, a need to deter people from breeding cats for the pet trade.
That said, cats do have the ability to biochemically alter the behavior of rodents.
My cat is safe, he has been raised by my dogs.
The study is bogus. Over a third of all households have a cat as a pet. Too broad of a study population to mean anything.
Might as well try to correlate those who drink plain water to schizophrenia.
A lot of nutjobs here in Florida favor reptiles.
Do any of these people having anything better do do?
So many dollars wasted on stupid stuff.
I think this is a canine plot to usurp our feline overlords!
More that mentally ill folks may have a cat than causative
Id like to see similar stats on reptile owners
A couple of years ago they said cats want to kill you. Now they want to make you go insane before they kill you.
Do a life long srptudy of identical twins. One has a cat or cats, the other never comes in contact with a cat. That might get me to believe that owning a cat is not a sign of a mental issue.
Double is a relative risk. The important number is the absolute risk. If the absolute risk is miniscule, a doubling of it will also be miniscule.
Good people have dogs .
Others have cats
A “sign” is not necessarily a cause.
Without suggesting this study proves anything or not, there is nothing that qualifies it as "the same science" that says a man can become a woman. There may be legitimate critiques of the study, but that claim is not one of them.
Begs the question: Which came first the schizophrenia or the cat.
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