toxoplasma gondii

• until recently, the chronic phase of the infection was thought to be asymptomatic. however, mood and behavior changes have now been reported in both animals and humans during this period of latency. a positive t. gondii antibody titer is associated with changes in personality and psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, and suicidal behavior. other behavioral manifestations include risk-taking, delayed reaction time, and reduced neural processing speed. this may explain the reason that traffic accidents are increased in seropositive individuals. ın rodents, a reversal in avoidance of cat odor and an attraction instead has been reported. although mechanisms are unclear, underlying changes in personality and behavior in rodents may occur as a result of the local inflammatory response induced by t. gondii neural cysts.
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