this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 104 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 66 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Also worth considering that growing up with cats linked to higher-income households, which is linked better access to Healthcare and accurate mental health diagnoses

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Do you have a reference? The only reference I could find (which I’m not thrilled with) indicates that their survey says exactly the opposite. Dogs skew towards higher income households, cats skew lower.

Dogs have a higher cost of ownership in food and vet bills, but I suspect (owning both for many years) dogs have a much higher cost in time invested. If I was working two jobs to make ends meet, I could see doing it with a cat, but not a dog.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I thought it’s compared to not having a cat, not compared to having a dog.

The headline wasn’t “those who grew up with cats more likely than those who grew up with dogs…”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I think that’s a reasonable question, regardless of the intended original meaning. I honestly think it’d make a good (and fundable) study.

Basically, look at the income skew in the disease population controlling for pet ownership. If high income cat owners are more likely positive, then we’re likely looking at a medical access question and the overall national health impact estimate should be adjusted accordingly.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 11 months ago

A dog clearly wrote this.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The fuck is with all this anti cat propaganda nonsense.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Astroturfing from Big Dog.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Clifford knows his demographics.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Conservatives?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago

It’s because they stare at the wall and ceiling at things that aren’t there and such, making you question your sanity.

It’s fine.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I feel like the title implies that cats cause schizophrenia when what's more likely is that people who have schizophrenia are more likely to like and own cats, and schizophrenia tends to run in families.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Or (EDIT: people with cats are) more likely to seek treatment.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Cats can carry toxoplasmosis which seems to have a correlation to schizophrenia. This could be the cause of crazy cat lady syndrome: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29068607/

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Despite what a lot of people think, most pet cats don't have toxoplasmosis, and even those with toxoplasmosis rarely actually pass it on to humans, so that really shouldn't occur often enough to be measurable if it was transmission from cats causing it. You're more likely to get toxoplasmosis from uncooked meat, since that's how most humans are infected.

Now, people with toxoplasmosis are more likely to own cats, so there could be a correlation there, but at the same time, diagnosis for schizophrenia is more common in countries where there are less people infected with toxoplasmosis overall (I think in the US only like 11% of the population has been infected before). I can't say I feel like that would sufficiently explain the correlation.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

don't care don't care
i like cats

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (3 children)

K can folks like just post stuff so we don't need to "read the article" aha.

Toxoplasmosis

Isn't that limited to outdoor cats usually? If cats don't start out with toxo how do they actually "get" it?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah this article is complete bullshit. We have known about Toxiiplasmasios for a long time and know that it’s from rodents that carry the parasite. If your cat is indoors then the chance of it catching a mouse with this parasite is super slim, and then for the human to catch it is even slimmer. Complete FUD.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

That's kinda what I was thinking. If I'm totally candid, it seems like there was some unsaid kind of implication that rich people have larger houses maybe where theres more rodents to worry about or something...?

Like, they didn't seem to come out and say that directly but I feel like its sort of inescapable lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The article talks about it in some detail. Cats are apparently part of the parasite’s multi-organism life cycle. It does start in rodents, wherein it manipulates their brains to make them less fearful of cats, making them more likely to come into contact with them. So, I guess indoor cats would be less likely to contract the parasite, but I’m not sure if that’s the only vector.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Ya like Ive never had a mouse and its def not on their account aha. Thats a pretty big contingency

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

You are more likely to get toxoplasmosis from eating undercooked meat than from your indoor cat unless you have a bad rodent problem in your house.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You can take my cat away......out of my cold, dead hands.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Warm, dead legs 🐈‍⬛