Journal of American Science 2014;10(5) http://www.jofamericanscience.org 135 The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in psychiatric patients in Tripoli, Libya Elsaid M. M. A,. 1 Azbedah A. G. 2 Dia Eddin E. EL-Alem 1 and Alkout A. 1 1 Faculty of Medical Technology, Tripoli University - Libya 2 Academy of Graduate Studies, Tripoli-Libya dr.elsaid@hotmail.com Abstract: Background and objective: Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by coccidian parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The infection by T. gondii is widespread through the world in many species of mammals including humans and in birds. Patients with psychiatric disorders were found to be high Seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis. There is no information about epidemiology of T. gondii in psychiatric patients in Libya. Therefore we investigate the seropositivity rate for anti-Toxoplasma IgG in psychiatric patients in Alrazi Neuropsychiatry hospital, Tripoli – Libya by using enzyme linked-immunosorbent assay (ELISA), to detect the relationship between T. gondii and psychiatric diseases, and to compare toxoplasmosis rate in patients with control population. Methods: serum samples of 300 psychiatric patients and 300 of control volunteers were examined for the presence of anti T. gondii IgG antibodies by latex and ELISA. Results: The seropositivity rate of T. gondii IgG antibodies by latex was 61.7% in patients and 46.7% in control samples, while by ELISA was 50.3% in patients and 33% in control samples. Conclusions: In this study, psychiatric patients had a significantly higher prevalence of T. gondii IgG antibodies than the control group (p=0.000). Thus, there might be a casual relationship between toxoplasmosis and the etiology of psychiatric diseases. [Elsaid M. M. A, Azbedah A. G. Dia Eddin E. EL-Alem and Alkout A. The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in psychiatric patients in Tripoli, Libya. J Am Sci 2014;10(5):135-140]. (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.jofamericanscience.org . 18 Keywords: prevalence; Toxoplasmosis; psychiatric; Tripoli 1- Introduction Toxoplasmosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii of member of the phylum Apicomplexa (Singh, 2003). T. gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections of man and other warm-blooded animals. It has been found worldwide in nearly one-third of the human population. The incidence of infection may vary in different parts of a world. The causes for these variations are environmental conditions, cultural habits, and animal species. Infections with T. gondii occur worldwide, but are especially prevalent in Europe, South America and Africa (Montoya and Liesenfeld, 2004; Burton et al., 2005 and Hill et al., 2005). Primary infection acquired during pregnancy may result in severe damage to the fetus (Montoya and Liesenfeld, 2004 and Kravetz and Federman, 2005), and may cause mental retardation, seizures, blindness, and death (Jones, et al., 2001) For its part, acquired infections in humans are usually asymptomatic, but in some infected persons cervical lymphadenopathy or ocular disease may occur (Montoya and Liesenfeld, 2004) and (Alvarado- Esquivel, 2006). Acquired T. gondii infection in immunocompetent patients may also cause central nervous system manifestations as Guillain-Barré syndrome (Bossi et al., 1998), or cause a brain abscess (Silva et al., 2001). In addition, acquired acute toxoplasmosis may be associated with psychiatric manifestations (Kramer, 1966) . Yolken et al. (2001) have shown that individuals with first- episode schizophrenia had significantly increased levels of antibodies against T. gondii as compared with control subjects. The risk factors for T. gondii infection in psychiatric patients have been poorly explored. Due to the limited number of recent epidemiological studies in psychiatric patients in general, and a lack of them in Tripoli-Libya in particular, we have performed a cross-sectional study in order to determine the prevalence of T. gondii infection in psychiatric patients of Tripoli City, Libya. We also included in our study investigations about the association between infection and the patient characteristics including sociodemographic and risk factors for infection. Results obtained were compared to a control group of and control group of random, normal volunteers. 2-Material and Methods Samples of the study: The population in this study was 300 psychiatric patients (outpatient or inpatient) in Alrazi Neuropsychiatry hospital in Tripoli – Libya, and control group of 300 random normal volunteers. Questionnaire forms was designed to assess some of the main risk factors which may influence the prevalence of Toxoplasma infection among the