TY - JOUR
T1 - Positive association between Toxoplasma gondii IgG serointensity and current dysphoria/hopelessness scores in the Old Order Amish
T2 - A preliminary study
AU - Wadhawan, Abhishek
AU - Dagdag, Aline
AU - Duffy, Allyson
AU - Daue, Melanie L.
AU - Ryan, Kathy A.
AU - Brenner, Lisa A.
AU - Stiller, John W.
AU - Pollin, Toni I.
AU - Groer, Maureen W.
AU - Huang, Xuemei
AU - Lowry, Christopher A.
AU - Mitchell, Braxton D.
AU - Postolache, Teodor T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by Distinguished Investigator Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (Postolache, PI, Rujescu, co-I, DIG 1-162-12), with additional funding from the Mid-Atlantic Nutrition Obesity Research Center Pilot NORC grant (Pos-tolache, PI), a subaward of the parent grant P30 DK072488 (Mitchell, PI) and from the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition/UMD, through the cooperative agreement FDU.001418 (Postolache, PI). This study was also supported by the VA Merit Review CSR&D grant 1I01 CX001310-01A1 (Postolache, PI). Additional support for the writing of this manuscript was provided by the Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC, Denver, CO, USA) and by the Veterans Integrated Service Network 5, MIRECC (Baltimore, MD, USA). We thank the staff of the Amish Research Clinic of the University of Maryland for their overall support and the trainees of the Mood and Anxiety Program for their help with references, mailings and data management. The authors thank Alexandra T. Dagdag for her assistance in making corrections to the galley proof PDF of this article. The views, opinions and findings contained in this article belong to the authors and should not be construed as an official position of the NIH, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, US Food and Drug Administration or the US Department of Veterans Affairs.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
PY - 2017/12/20
Y1 - 2017/12/20
N2 - Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) IgG seropositivity and serointensity have been previously associated with suicidal self-directed violence (SSDV). Although associations with unipolar depression have also been investigated, the results have been inconsistent, possibly as a consequence of high heterogeneity. We have now studied this association in a more homogeneous population, [that is (i.e.) Old Order Amish (OOA)] with previously reported high T. gondii seroprevalence. In 306 OOA with a mean age of 46.1±16.7 years, including 191 (62.4%) women in the Amish Wellness Study, we obtained both T. gondii IgG titers (by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]), depression screening questionnaires (Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9] [n=280] and PHQ-2 [n=26]). Associations between T. gondii IgG and dysphoria/hopelessness and anhedonia scores on depression screening questionnaires were analyzed using multivariable linear methods with adjustment for age and sex. Serointensity was associated with both current dysphoria/hopelessness (p=0.045) and current combined anhedonia and dysphoria/hopelessness (p=0.043), while associations with simple anhedonia and past/lifelong (rather than current) phenotypes were not significant. These results indicate the need for larger longitudinal studies to corroborate the association between dysphoria/hopelessness and T. gondii IgG-titers. Current hopelessness is a known risk factor for SSDV which responds particularly well to cognitive behavioral therapy, may be a focused treatment target for T. gondii-positive individuals at high-risk for SSDV.
AB - Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) IgG seropositivity and serointensity have been previously associated with suicidal self-directed violence (SSDV). Although associations with unipolar depression have also been investigated, the results have been inconsistent, possibly as a consequence of high heterogeneity. We have now studied this association in a more homogeneous population, [that is (i.e.) Old Order Amish (OOA)] with previously reported high T. gondii seroprevalence. In 306 OOA with a mean age of 46.1±16.7 years, including 191 (62.4%) women in the Amish Wellness Study, we obtained both T. gondii IgG titers (by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA]), depression screening questionnaires (Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9] [n=280] and PHQ-2 [n=26]). Associations between T. gondii IgG and dysphoria/hopelessness and anhedonia scores on depression screening questionnaires were analyzed using multivariable linear methods with adjustment for age and sex. Serointensity was associated with both current dysphoria/hopelessness (p=0.045) and current combined anhedonia and dysphoria/hopelessness (p=0.043), while associations with simple anhedonia and past/lifelong (rather than current) phenotypes were not significant. These results indicate the need for larger longitudinal studies to corroborate the association between dysphoria/hopelessness and T. gondii IgG-titers. Current hopelessness is a known risk factor for SSDV which responds particularly well to cognitive behavioral therapy, may be a focused treatment target for T. gondii-positive individuals at high-risk for SSDV.
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U2 - 10.1515/pterid-2017-0019
DO - 10.1515/pterid-2017-0019
M3 - Article
C2 - 29657363
AN - SCOPUS:85037591833
SN - 0933-4807
VL - 28
SP - 185
EP - 194
JO - Pteridines
JF - Pteridines
IS - 3-4
ER -