Bad Kitty?

Posted on November 13, 2005 in Cats Schizophrenia

The story leaked through the ever-reliable and responsible New York Daily News: your cat may be giving your children schizophrenia. Never mind that other studies have shown that schizophrenia has “a very significant genetic component”. Dr. Fuller Torrey feels that your childhood cat may be to blame:

The research showed childhood cat owners had a 53% increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Furthermore, children who were breast fed had a 51% increase in risk.

On the surface, these statistics sound significant. Statisticians don’t jump, however, when they see these figures. Against what were the schizophrenics compared? What is the rate of cat ownership in the general population? How do you explain the generations upon generations of family schizophrenics who probably did not have the contact with cats like we do today?

See the problem?

Torrey admits that the present study hasn’t provided any conclusive findings but has opened up an area for future research.

In other words, grant money galoure.

The New York Daily News took the newswire report and used it for its own chauvinistic ends, an all out attack on cats and those suffering from mental illness. Ideal for a rag which specializes in sensationalism and hatred. As Gilgamesh wrote at Locks and Keys:

….the New York Daily News…not so very heroically turned it into a slam of the mentally ill with its article entitled “Does this explain the crazy lady in 5B?” Yes, serve that with a healthy slice of stigma while you are at it….

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A poll of our three felines is inconclusive. When asked their opinion of Torrey’s study, they opened their eyes sleepily for a few seconds, then closed them again. I rolled Fiona on her back and drummed on her belly: she purred.

Stanley Medical Research is where Dr. Torrey works. There is no reference to the study on the site.