2 ms·

Are you saying people with mental illness seek comfort via pets (cats). Shouldn't we see an affinity for other social pets besides cats?

• shubb 9y ago
  You could probably answer this question using this resource [1]. However, someone used it to show no associations between psychotic episodes (specifically) AFTER controlling for other factors (that are associated with cat ownership)[2]. Using the adjustments they made, I could wildly speculate that possibly dog owners will be less likely than cat owners to have mental illness, because dogs require a certain amount of wealth, living space, etc - and the lack of these things is associated both with cat ownership and mental illness, maybe, just not in rural areas... [1]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/access/ http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/access/ [2]https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/curiosity-killed-the-cat-no-evidence-of-an-association-between-cat-ownership-and-psychotic-symptoms-at-ages-13-and-18-years-in-a-uk-general-population-cohort/75C9A48B669BE36E947AFB0BC5CB00CA/core-reader https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medici...