There's been no scientficially-verifiable studies done on the actual behavioural effects of toxoplasmosis, either on people as a whole or on individual sexes. The behaviours most commonly noted in infected people is decreased jealousy in males and decreased frigidity in females; anything beyond these are largely debated and are essentially wild speculation.
The biggest medical concern for infection is in women, no evidence has been shown that pregnancy will reactivate latent toxoplasmosis and allow it to become acute. If a woman is infected with toxoplasmosis it is safer to leave her untreated until she will no longer have children (around 50 years naturally, younger if her tubes are tied). Infection with toxoplasmosis when pregnant is exceptionally dangerous to the child (blindness and brain damage are exceptionally common, brain death can occur shortly after birth in many cases), but also very dangerous to the mother due to a suppressed immune system, which can start with flu-like symptoms and quickly progress to encephalitis.
Treatment in males could be performed at any time, however the course of drugs for latent toxoplasmosis are either exceptionally strong, or exceptionally long term and both are far more harmful than the infection. Not to mention that if the infection isn't completely removed it may become acute, potentially causing eye damage and nasal lesions, possibly a loss of smell. The bigger problem if the infection becomes acute is that the hosts immune system has usually been somewhat compromised by the medications.
There's also little proof of an immune resistance to toxoplasmosis and a person who has already been infected is highly likely to be reinfected, it is far more common to contract through your diet than your pet cat (prevalence in France is near 90%, but is near 5% in South Korea despite cat ownership averaging in the 20-40% around the world). This not only means you'll have to be retreated for the same exceptionally benign disease, but it increases your chances of acute infection.
I'm sure a magical cure all of toxoplasmosis would undoubtedly do good, but it's prevalent everywhere in the environment, and despite animals being treated with medications to prevent toxoplasmosis, food is the number one way to contract it. You would have to treat a few billion humans and animals, including vermin and hope none will become drug resistant.
Acute toxoplasmosis shows no signs of drug resistance, however latent toxoplasmosis already shows signs of drug resistant strains despite treatment barely being performed except in rare cases (Rh-negatives allegedly suffer decreased reaction time, which is dangerous for drivers, especially when already tired).
I have no references for non-treatment toxoplasmosis treatment being safer, that's just common sense when populations like France are near 90% infected and show lower violence rates than lower infected populations like Britain (22%) despite the infection allegedly increasing violence amongst males. The statistics would appear to be contradictory to some of the assumptions made by doctors.
What this really needs is an actual long-term behavioural study, but until then we have wild speculation with zero scientific basis and all appears to be contrary to current observable statistics.
Great info provided in an authoritative, confidence-inspiring tone and level of detail... but if I wanted to read this from a source other than an pseudonymous thread commenter, what references do you recommend? (Is this from medical journals? Are you a practicing doctor or researcher in this field?)
I've studied psychology, sociology and some medical care and am in no way a licensed professional (I'm purely debating on what I know, there are likely doctors far more knowledgeable on this subject, but as yet there have been no scientific studies on the behaviour effects, so anything other than infection prevalence and the acute symptoms of toxoplasmosis are wild speculation anyway), so I got into reading journals on them all (plus magazines like New Scientist), so personally I'd recommend journals if you can. The Lancet (which is essentially the medical journal in the UK) is a quality journal; I know they had an article on prenatal toxoplasmosis treatment, a good one IIRC, in the first half of 2007.
Other than that, I'd say a quality medical dictionary or an excellent anatomy textbook like Gray's Anatomy wouldn't do you harm for the inquisitive mind. There are lots of texts out there, once you get acquainted with some it becomes easier to find others.
I personally believe you're better of understanding your body and medicine, because if you ever get sick you're stuck relying on another human being and not a living embodiment of scientific facts. You're never going to know something doesn't sound right, if you don't know what your doctor is talking about. I'd also add, always get a second opinion for even moderate care issues (if you can, I live in Canada and grew up in the UK with Universal Healthcare, I'm aware this isn't necessarily practical for everyone in the US who may read this), or at least find and discuss your medical concerns with others, it can sometimes help. I realised my psoriasis wasn't eczema (which I was originally diagnosed with) when I noticed the difference between mine and all the other kids, like I've said elsewhere it spread to 20% of my body because I was told it was benign. I knew a girl with 70% coverage because she'd been misdiagnosed; a single flare-up of her 'eczema' caused her to breakout over nearly her entire torso and needed hospitalization for about a month to get it under control.
The biggest medical concern for infection is in women, no evidence has been shown that pregnancy will reactivate latent toxoplasmosis and allow it to become acute. If a woman is infected with toxoplasmosis it is safer to leave her untreated until she will no longer have children (around 50 years naturally, younger if her tubes are tied). Infection with toxoplasmosis when pregnant is exceptionally dangerous to the child (blindness and brain damage are exceptionally common, brain death can occur shortly after birth in many cases), but also very dangerous to the mother due to a suppressed immune system, which can start with flu-like symptoms and quickly progress to encephalitis.
Treatment in males could be performed at any time, however the course of drugs for latent toxoplasmosis are either exceptionally strong, or exceptionally long term and both are far more harmful than the infection. Not to mention that if the infection isn't completely removed it may become acute, potentially causing eye damage and nasal lesions, possibly a loss of smell. The bigger problem if the infection becomes acute is that the hosts immune system has usually been somewhat compromised by the medications.
There's also little proof of an immune resistance to toxoplasmosis and a person who has already been infected is highly likely to be reinfected, it is far more common to contract through your diet than your pet cat (prevalence in France is near 90%, but is near 5% in South Korea despite cat ownership averaging in the 20-40% around the world). This not only means you'll have to be retreated for the same exceptionally benign disease, but it increases your chances of acute infection.
I'm sure a magical cure all of toxoplasmosis would undoubtedly do good, but it's prevalent everywhere in the environment, and despite animals being treated with medications to prevent toxoplasmosis, food is the number one way to contract it. You would have to treat a few billion humans and animals, including vermin and hope none will become drug resistant.
Acute toxoplasmosis shows no signs of drug resistance, however latent toxoplasmosis already shows signs of drug resistant strains despite treatment barely being performed except in rare cases (Rh-negatives allegedly suffer decreased reaction time, which is dangerous for drivers, especially when already tired).
I have no references for non-treatment toxoplasmosis treatment being safer, that's just common sense when populations like France are near 90% infected and show lower violence rates than lower infected populations like Britain (22%) despite the infection allegedly increasing violence amongst males. The statistics would appear to be contradictory to some of the assumptions made by doctors.
What this really needs is an actual long-term behavioural study, but until then we have wild speculation with zero scientific basis and all appears to be contrary to current observable statistics.