Common Parasite May Trigger Suicide Attempts

ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2012) — A parasite thought to be harmless and found in many people may actually be causing subtle changes in the brain, leading to suicide attempts.

New research appearing in the August issue of The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry adds to the growing work linking an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii parasite to suicide attempts. Michigan State University's Lena Brundin was one of the lead researchers on the team.

About 10-20 percent of people in the United States have Toxoplasma gondii, or T. gondii, in their bodies, but in most it was thought to lie dormant, said Brundin, an associate professor of experimental psychiatry in MSU's College of Human Medicine. In fact, it appears the parasite can cause inflammation over time, which produces harmful metabolites that can damage brain cells.
"Previous research has found signs of inflammation in the brains of suicide victims and people battling depression, and there also are previous reports linking Toxoplasma gondii to suicide attempts," she said. "In our study we found that if you are positive for the parasite, you are seven times more likely to attempt suicide."

Full article here:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120816170400.htm

Isn't the rate of suicide for ME/CFS patients very high? Might it be due to brain inflammation - whether from this T, gondii or otherwise?

Hmm... interesting.

I am all for research that finds links between infection, inflammation and psychiatric disease.

I think many psychiatric disorders have an underlying biomedical and possibly infectious trigger. Think of the therapeutic potential if such a cause could be treated.

thanks for putting this up, Glynis.

So when do psychologists regularly check their patients for T. gondii? It makes me mad, that in the medical field, it takes decades, till studies get transformed into clinical practice.

I don't think they ever would. They "might" refer them on to the relevant specialist, but then again, they are not trained to recognise mental health issues as being related to an infection. And it would do their own careers the world of good if other mental health issues were the resut of an infection, especially if said infection were treatable.

I would think that Psychologists or Psychiatrists don't have too much of an incentive of finding biomedical markers for their patients' problems. This is called "job security".

Glynis,

This is called "synchronized posting". I'm surprised they don't have it as a sport in the Olympics!

Imagine if you created a life, a career, a living, a sense of identity around a hypothesis such as "the world is flat". What if that hypothesis was so strongly advocated that it morphed into a quasi Indisputable fact? If the "fact" turned into fiction and a new hypothesis was found to reveal the truth (i.e. "the world is round") wouldn't that turn those unwilling to accept the truth into rather common parasites? Just thinking out loud about how parasites can come in all shapes and sizes.

Omg, the medical profession was actually wrong and downplaying something?? I'm so shocked.

Interestingly this was one of the MANY THINGS Ive been infected with. I have quite a attempted suicide history... last time I tried I nearly succeded and was in the ICU for a while, unconcious for days.

I personally believe that psychs are keeping the whole mental health field from moving forwards.. probably most mental health issues are being caused by real physiological issues and having low serotinon is ONLY ONE cause that some have but for some reason psychs seem to just want to focus on that (without even testing patients too see if serotinin is in fact low!! and they call it practicising medicine? Its nothing but assumptions and guess work! Psychriatry is a Quack field.

When I was put into prison (for attempted suicide which got an arson charge put onto me..unbelievable system).. While there.... I notice that so many there had major health issues to which I think caused them to commit the crimes. Im talking about MAJOR medical problems.. the girl in the cell next to me was having like 15 grandmal seizures where she was unconscious a day (she also had a borderline personality diagnoses, she's swing like dr jeckle and mr hyde).. I couldnt believe she wasnt in hospital. She was a very genuine, kind hearted girl who just obviously had something very seriously wrong. (actually the prison guards knew that too as some of them gave her special treatment)

An other had the mind of an 8 year old and one can tell that (if there was a puddle on the floor..she'd play in it).. she was in prison for biting a carer. (i only chatted to and got to know a little, 4 of the other prisoners while there.. but 2 of those 4 SHOULDNT have been there.. it was failure of our health system and management why they were there)

The situation is so so terrible.. people with MAJOR medical issues are being sent to psychs who arent helping them and if they advice dont help, they go on to tell you "its your fault you cant control your moods, you need to learn too" and then those people end up in trouble and end up dead or in prison.

My mood swings were so bad that Ive halluncinated during them but was still told by psychs it was my fault due to me not having something like schizophenia. They kept on saying I was fine thou I'd had hallucinations, couldnt control my moods so hit even strangers and was having suicide attempts. If they cant put your symptoms in a nice little box of an illness they know, they dont believe you are sick. They think you must be faking or a bad person. There are many sick people out there who are being treated like bad people just cause they are very sick and the medical profession has let them down.
............................

What helped my mood swings (occassionally violent ones) greatly was finding out they were being caused by hyperinsulinemia (and quite possibly due to also having MCS.. may be why I get since a severe reaction to high insulin) and being hence then put on an extremely low carb diet which changed things soo much for me. I went from feeling like I was about to go crazy any moment and hence not being able to trust myself to being normal again. Since then I dont mood swing constantly..

I now arent spending EVERY MOMENT scared about what I may do while trying to control my mood and myself (I could of easily murdered someone.. soo not myself during a mood swing). I now only have MAJOR issue right before my period (hence are diagnosed severe Premenstral dysphoric disorder).

I wonder if T. gondii activates more due to hormones??? If it does.. this brain inflammation could well explain my severe PMDD. (unless it is the MCS which is occassionally making me respond so abnormally to my hormones)

Tania,

thank you so much for this insight. " Psychiatry is a Quack field." I agree to 100%. The problem is, that for everyone who has depression or borderline symptoms, you will find another person with nearly exactly the same past experiences and environment who feels perfectly normal. It's the biochemistry behind it, which determines, how someone reacts to an event and (this is even more important) to NO psychological event at all (a clear case where physical causes lead to psychological symptoms). If someone has bad genes, bad microbiota, infections, suffers from inflammatory conditions etc., his brain is likely to produce less serotonin, dopamine and everything that would make him happy. What if there exist problems with brain-dervied neurotropic factor? What if receptors are resistant? There are hundreds of ways where things can go wrong in a brain but especially psychiatrists deny this fact as good as they can to protect their jobs, ego or whatever. Fighting reality and prolonging the suffering of people by denying the real causes of their diseases, in my eyes, is something that should be treated. Therefore I would highly recommend, that psychiatrists visit their colleagues and receive "proper" treatment. I feel so sorry for all the people who have physical causes for their diseases but get the wrong treatment. There are thousands of validated scientific studies out there, that connect depression etc. to physical causes e.g. inflammation, infection etc., but these findings, as always in the medical field, take decades to get transformed into clinical practice. One might be tempted to say, that some people in the medical field are real losers, that delay the proper treatment of patients because it is easier to talk crap all day, than to actually sit in a lab, conduct studies and take risk by offering a treatment that might or might not work.

Of course not!

Obviously the suicidal people are simply attracting the parasites.

Ergo counseling will cure these parasitical problems.