Psychiatric aspects of toxoplasmosis: an Indian perspective

• Published in: Journal of parasitic diseases Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 1636 - 1639
• Main Author: Mangot, Ajish G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01-12-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Immune response; Immune system; Infectious Diseases; Lymphocytes T; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Short Communication; India; Behavioral; Psychosis; Psychiatry; India; Toxoplasma
• ISSN: 0971-7196; 0975-0703
• DOI: 10.1007/s12639-015-0684-y

Toxoplasma gondii
is one of the well-studied parasites because of its medical and veterinary importance, and its suitability as a model for cell biology and molecular studies. Latent toxoplasmosis in an immunocompetent host was considered benign until recently. The importance of this parasite has been steadily rising in the field of psychiatry and neurology as it has been implicated in numerous neuropsychiatric disorders. Researchers in India have unfortunately restricted themselves to finding the prevalence of toxoplasma antibodies in special populations and animals. On the other hand, there has been increasing research interest worldwide in
T. gondii
for its effects on human behaviour, manifestations of which range from psychoses and neuroses to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Toxoplasma
infected organisms may be akin to living zombies. From changing the core natural defensive behaviour in mice to changing personality & leading to neuropsychiatric disorders in humans,
Toxoplasma
brings about subtle but significant & specific changes in its host. Surprisingly there is severe dearth of such studies from India even though prevalence rates of latent
Toxoplasma
infection are comparable, or in some regions, higher to those found elsewhere in the world. The potential for identifying
Toxoplasma
induced behavioural alterations is enormous in this part of the world which could have future treatment implications. It’s high time that we move beyond researching the obvious and involve ourselves in more rigorous, novel and stimulating studies in the future.