New study finds no correlation between cat ownership and mental illness

Indy Anna · Feb 22, 2017

Crazy cat people, take note: if your family owned a cat as a child, you can file this under News that makes you breathe a sigh of relief. You can cancel that appointment with the shrink.

Living with a cat during childhood does not cause mental illness later in life, a new study from University College London suggests, disputing earlier studies that caused alarm by linking cats to human mental illness.

We found that children who were born and raised in households that included cats at any time period that is, pregnancy, early and late childhood were not at a higher risk of having psychotic symptoms when they were 13 or 18 years old, researchers wrote in The Conversation. The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine on Wednesday.

Read more at ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cats-mental-illness-toxoplasma_us_58adc06ae4b03d80af714072

atm9533 · Feb 22, 2017

This is so funny, I was so surprised to read this earlier, I did not realize there was a risk of mental illness to cat owners. I sent it to my friend that owns many cats and said "well I guess this isn't the reason"

skibaboo · Feb 22, 2017

Yeah I got all kinda reasons for my mental health issues, having a cat or several isn't one of them LOL They HELP. This was really a study? :laughing:

Indy Anna · Feb 22, 2017

skibaboo said:
Yeah I got all kinda reasons for my mental health issues, having a cat or several isn't one of them LOL They HELP. This was really a study? :laughing:

I wasn't even aware of the past studies correlating childhood cat ownership with MI when I saw this. I'm not a cat person myself but I, too, thought they would rather have a calming effect on children (and adults).

I especially thought of you when I read this, skibaboo. I know there are quite a few cat lovers here. Glad this study debunked those other studies because I don't think they were based on sound science.

teeandcee · Feb 23, 2017

Anyone who has a cat knows the past studies were ridiculous. Put out by a dog person no doubt. :angel:

New study finds no correlation between cat ownership and mental illness

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