If you love cats and at times suffer from uncontrolled anger events, there is something which you should know. Your cat can be contributing to your aggressive behavior. According to researchers at University of Chicago, cats carry a parasite that spreads to human and turn them aggressive. The link between anger and cat’s parasite was discovered while conducting a study to find better diagnosis and treatment for people with frequent bouts of anger.

The parasite called toxoplasma gondii found in cats spreads Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease that is transmitted through feces of infected cats. This disease could also spread through undercooked meat or contaminated water. In the US, an estimated more than 60 million people have this parasitic disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The parasite is found on nearly 30 percent of all humans and is considered harmless in large number of cases. However, research found that in some cases the disease might have led to Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), a psychiatric disorder characterized by recurrent, impulsive, problematic outbursts of verbal or physical aggression that are disproportionate to the situations that trigger them.

The research was conducted on 358 adult subjects by a team led by Dr. Emil Coccaro and Dr. Royce Lee of the University of Chicago's department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. They were judged for IED, personality disorder, depression and other psychiatric disorders. The researchers found IED in one-third of the volunteers participated in study. The people with no psychiatric disorder comprised control group.

They concluded that people with IED were more than twice as likely to test positive for toxoplasmosis exposure compared to the control group. “Our work suggests that latent infection with the toxoplasma gondii parasite may change brain chemistry in a fashion that increases the risk of aggressive behavior”, said Coccaro.