Prenatal and Neonatal Environment: Toxoplasma Gondii

 

 

It is well known that an unborn brain could be damaged by numerous neglected acts a pregnant woman do. For example when pregnant women drink or smoke that could damage the fetus in many ways they could be born with many physical and or mental defects. Using drugs is also a huge factoring that damage the fetus brain development, but what happens when pregnant women are not aware of illness that could be as close as on our pets. This happens with Toxoplasma gondii is a unicellular parasite belonging to the genus toxoplasma. This disease can only be produce on cats but it can affects human and other species as well. However if it infects a human it is called toxoplasmosis, and it could be very dangerous if someone’s immune system if not strong enough to fight it. This is related to schizophrenia because if this kind of parasite affects a child’s brain it could caused him or her to have hallucinations, visions, and delusions. More than 60 million people in the United States are said to be infected with toxoplasmosis but not everyone develops the disease because of their good immune system. People could get infected by eating undercooked meat, contaminated water or milk, and other ways such as mother to child while still pregnant. If pregnant women do not experienced a miscarriage then the baby could born with abnormalities as larger or smaller head size, and brain or eye damage.

 

This video and images show in more detailed the effects of toxoplasma gondii.  

 

 

 

 

Postpartum Depresssion

Postpartum Depression affects many women after giving birth to a child. This type of depression is more common among women; however, it could be detected among new male parents as well. Of course rate among men with postpartum depression is not as high as those on women, but they can still suffer from the new parent’s issues. I remember this happened to me with my first born. I was 21 thought that motherhood would be an easy experience, well I was way off, because it is very difficult to cope to a new life where all your time needs to be divided. I have heard that postpartum depression happen in a way that mothers reject their newborns, but in my particular case I was so concern about my baby’s needs that I couldn’t fall sleep because every single noise would woke me up instantly. I remember I cried every time my baby cried it, it was a feeling I could not help it I would just cry for everything. Sometimes I would just cry because I felt super tired and mentally and physically drained. I felt like I wasn’t a good mother because I was always crying with her instead of being strong and deal with it. I remember that I did not eat, because I knew she could woke up at any minute so I was not going to have enough time. It is a feeling you can’t control and even though I did not get any treatment it is much recommended to get professional help. Some finds shows that what causes postpartum depression is because of lack of vitamins, and some others found that it is because of a change on women hormones during pregnancy. The truth is that there is not a well known cause for this type of depression.   

Panic Disoder

Panic disorder could be caused by an anxiety to uncomfortable places or situations to an individual. They are spontaneous so no one knows when a victim of panic attacks will have one. For some people not knowing when they are having the next panic attack can be very stressful; therefore, they prefer to stay home and not going out to do normal things. That can really get on the way of their normal life, because they can become isolated and lose friends and family members. A lot of the cases start with people who are under a lot of stress, and that could lead to panic disorders because they do not know how to let all that stress out so they react by panic attacks. The weird part of this disorder is that these victims get panic for no apparent of logical reason they are just scared with something. This can also happen with some physical symptoms such as Fast heartbeat, chest pain, breathing difficulty, shaking, sweating, nausea, and dizziness. Panic attacks are also more common on women than on men. This disorder affects young adults in the late adolescence and it affects about 2.4 million adults Americans. Even though this disorder is not predictable if there is no physical symptoms then patients maybe referred to a mental specialist. Anxiety up to a point it’s good, but not to where you can not control it to the point of having a panic attack.

 

This video shows some issues with panic attacks.