, 2000, Webster, 1994 and Webster et al., 1994). Meanwhile, a broad range of other behaviors related to learning ( Vyas et al., 2007), social status ( Berdoy et al., 1995), and olfaction ( Vyas et al., 2007) remain unaffected. While the neurologic effects of toxoplasmosis in congenitally-infected or immunocompromised humans are well-established (e.g., encephalitis in AIDS patients), infection among the immunocompetent is generally considered relatively benign: the parasite is never cleared from the nervous system but cell-mediated immune response suppresses pathogenic activity (Montoya and Liesenfeld, 2004).

This “no harm done” assumption is now being reconsidered, as growing evidence links T. gondii to several mental Romidepsin datasheet disorders ( Fekadu et al., 2010). Decades of serological investigations have corroborated a relationship between T. gondii and schizophrenia ATM/ATR targets ( Torrey et al., 2012). More recently, studies have

implicated the infection in mood disorders (e.g., depression, bipolar disease) and suicidal behavior ( Fekadu et al., 2010), while a small case-control study suggests an association with obsessive–compulsive disorder ( Miman et al., 2010). To our knowledge, no previous study has examined the association between T. gondii and either GAD or PTSD, and none has investigated the parasite’s association with any diagnosed Tideglusib anxiety disorder among individuals living in the community setting. To address these gaps in the literature, we used data from the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study (DNHS), a prospective, population-based study of residents of Detroit, Michigan. The purpose of this study was to examine whether T. gondii seropositivity and IgG antibody levels were associated with three different mental disorders, GAD, PTSD, and depression, in persons 18 years of age and older living in Detroit, Michigan. The DNHS is a longitudinal, population-based study designed to investigate correlates of mental disorders in the city of Detroit. A probability

sample of 1547 individuals (aged ⩾18 years) living within the Detroit city limits participated in a baseline telephone survey in 2008–2009. The DNHS was approved by the institutional review board at the University of Michigan, and all participants provided written, informed consent. Participants were administered a 40 minute assessment via a telephone survey, which included questions on socio-demographic characteristics and a standardized assessment of GAD, PTSD, and depression. Wave 1 survey participants were representative of the Detroit population in terms of age, gender, race, income, and educational attainment (for more detailed information, see Uddin et al., 2010). All respondents were invited during the phone interview to participate in the biospecimen component of the study and 484 (31.