Toxoplasma gondii - obsessive -compulsive disorder relationship: is it different in children?


MİMAN Ö., ÖZCAN Ö., Unal S., ATAMBAY M.

NORDIC JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY, cilt.72, sa.7, ss.501-505, 2019 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 72 Sayı: 7
  • Basım Tarihi: 2019
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/08039488.2018.1514421
  • Dergi Adı: NORDIC JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.501-505
  • İnönü Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Background and aim: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common neuropsychiatric illness. Although the etiology of OCD is still unknown, recent investigations have associated development of OCD with infectious illness. Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a neurotropic protozoan parasite that causes infection of the central nervous system. In the last decade, a lot of researches have focused on the possible relationship between exposure to T. gondii and neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Therefore, in this study, it was aimed to investigate a possible association between Toxoplasma infection and OCD in children and adolescents.Methods: We selected 55 patients with OCD (aged between 7 and 16 years) and 59 healthy children and adolescents (aged between 7 and 16 years), and investigated the seropositivity rate for anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Results: The seropositivity rate for anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies among OCD patients (21.82%) was found to be higher than the rate in control group (15.25%). However, the difference between the OCD group and the control group was not statistically significant (p>.05).Conclusion: In contrast to studies in adult patients, the results of this study do not support the relationship between T. gondii and OCD children and adolescents.