There is controversy about an association of infection and mood disorders. a significantly higher seroprevalence of contamination than controls of the same Proglumide age group (= 0.001). Results of the present study suggest a potential association between contamination and depressive disorder. Furthers studies to confirm our results and to determine the epidemiology of in young depressed patients should be conducted. causes infections all around the world [1]. Main routes of contamination are eating raw or under cooked meat containing tissue cysts, and ingestion of water contaminated with oocysts shed by cats [2, 3]. Contamination with can also occur vertically [2, 4]. Most infections with are asymptomatic. However, contamination with may lead to eye, lymph node, and central nervous system disease, i.e., in congenital toxoplasmosis and in immunocompromised patients [2, 5, 6]. Seroprevalence of is usually high in psychiatric patients in general [7, 8]. A number of mental illnesses have been linked to contamination including schizophrenia [9, 10], stress [11], and cognitive impairment [12C14]. There is controversy about an association of contamination and mood disorders. In a study of psychiatric patents in Cuba, researchers found the highest percentage of reactivity to the toxoplasmin intradermal test among patients with depressive mental disorders [15]. A case of depressive disorder with seropositivity who responded to antidepressant treatment only after adequate treatment for was reported [16]. However, in the Third National Health and Nutrition Survey in the USA, researchers did not find an association between seroprevalence and history of major depressive disorder or dysthymia [17]. On the other Proglumide hand, antibody titers Proglumide have been linked to suicide attempts in patients with recurrent mood disorders [18]. Therefore, we sought to determine the association between contamination and depressive disorder in patients attended in a public psychiatric hospital in Durango City, Mexico. Materials and methods Study design and patients studied Through an age- and gender-matched caseCcontrol study design, we examined 89 psychiatric patients suffering from depressive disorder attended in a public psychiatric hospital in Durango, Mexico and 356 control subjects without depressive disorder from the general population of the same city. This study was performed from August to November 2015. Inclusion criteria for enrollment of cases were: 1) patients suffering from depressive disorder attended in the Hospital of Mental Health Dr. Miguel Vallebueno of the Secretary of Health in Durango City; 2) aged 17 years Proglumide and older; and 3) who accepted to participate in the study. Gender was not a restrictive criterion for enrollment. Of the 89 cases, 64 (71.9%) were females and 25 (28.1%) were males. Mean age in cases was 38.65 12.93 (range 17C78) years old. The diagnosis of depressive disorder was classified using the International Classification of Diseases Proglumide (ICD-10) (http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/). Control subjects were matched with cases for gender and age. Controls were randomly selected from the general population of Durango City. Controls considered themselves as healthy without depression. Inclusion criteria for enrollment of controls were: 1) subjects of the general population of Durango City without depressive disorder; 2) aged 17 years and older; and 3) who accepted to participate in the study. Of the 356 controls, 260 (73.0%) were females and 96 (27.0%) were males. Mean age in controls was 38.66 12.89 (range 17C80) years old. No statistically significant differences in age (= 0.99) and gender (= 0.83) between cases and controls were found. Detection of anti-T. gondii antibodies Serum samples from participants were obtained and stored at C20 C until analyzed. Anti-IgG antibodies were decided in sera with the commercially available enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit IgG (Diagnostic Automation/Cortez Diagnostics Inc., Rabbit Polyclonal to Cytochrome P450 27A1 Woodland Hills, CA, USA). Anti-IgG antibody levels were expressed as International Units (IU)/ml, and results 8 IU/ml were considered positive. Seropositive for anti-IgG antibodies were further analyzed for anti-IgM antibodies by the commercially available EIA IgM kit (Diagnostic Automation/Cortez Diagnostics Inc.). All IgG and IgM assays were performed according to the instructions of the manufacturer. Statistical analysis We performed the statistical analysis with the aid of the software SPSS 15.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois) and Epi Info 7. For calculation of the sample size, we used a 95% confidence level, a power.