With rates of prevalence hovering in the 5 people per 1,000, and a standing distribution in the tens of millions, world wide, this one risks reversing cause and effect.
Where there’s smoke there’s fire, not quite.
I’m developing more of an opinion that schizophrenics tend to enjoy the company of cats. And that conceptualization certainly rings truer to me, given how many people have cats and other host animals as pets, and knowing feline behavior for what it is.
If you take a look at schizophrenic homeless people, most descend into hopeless lives of exposure, often smell of horrific body odor, and likely pick up many more illnesses by exposing themselves to unsanitary conditions on the streets.
Look at the behavior of homeless people, and they’re readily characterized as disinhibited. But does that prove the hypothesis?
Look at many pathological pet owners (people with tens of animals in their homes), and they’re desperate for companions. But does that prove the hypothesis?
These two classes of people can skew statistics, without revealing cause and effect.
There are multiple presentations of schizophrenia, and each responds differently to an array of tactics applied as shotgun style therapy, where you spray the afflicted with multiple theraputic efforts, throwing spitballs at the wall, until something sticks.
Theory points to the blanket term of “schizophrenia” serving as an umbrella for multiple diseases in a cluster of symptoms all stemming from harmful, persistent, chronic or developmental brain damaging maladies. Maybe toxoplasmosis is part of the problem, or contributes to uique complications, but more than likely, it is not THE silver bullet smoking gun cause, but more or less one more risk factor, in a set that includes genetics, other CNS insults, and other aspects of patient history including abuse and neglect.
4 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 19.5 ms ] threadWhere there’s smoke there’s fire, not quite.
I’m developing more of an opinion that schizophrenics tend to enjoy the company of cats. And that conceptualization certainly rings truer to me, given how many people have cats and other host animals as pets, and knowing feline behavior for what it is.
If you take a look at schizophrenic homeless people, most descend into hopeless lives of exposure, often smell of horrific body odor, and likely pick up many more illnesses by exposing themselves to unsanitary conditions on the streets.
Look at the behavior of homeless people, and they’re readily characterized as disinhibited. But does that prove the hypothesis?
Look at many pathological pet owners (people with tens of animals in their homes), and they’re desperate for companions. But does that prove the hypothesis?
These two classes of people can skew statistics, without revealing cause and effect.
There are multiple presentations of schizophrenia, and each responds differently to an array of tactics applied as shotgun style therapy, where you spray the afflicted with multiple theraputic efforts, throwing spitballs at the wall, until something sticks.
Theory points to the blanket term of “schizophrenia” serving as an umbrella for multiple diseases in a cluster of symptoms all stemming from harmful, persistent, chronic or developmental brain damaging maladies. Maybe toxoplasmosis is part of the problem, or contributes to uique complications, but more than likely, it is not THE silver bullet smoking gun cause, but more or less one more risk factor, in a set that includes genetics, other CNS insults, and other aspects of patient history including abuse and neglect.