Moderate to heavy infections of<i>Trichuris trichiura</i>affect cognitive function in Jamaican school children

TLDR

The study aimed to determine whether moderate to high loads of Trichuris trichiura infection impair cognitive function in Jamaican school children. Children were randomized to treatment, placebo, or uninfected control groups, and cognitive improvement was assessed with stepwise multiple linear regression controlling for confounders. Worm expulsion significantly improved auditory short‑term memory and long‑term memory scanning/retrieval, and after nine weeks treated children performed similarly to uninfected controls, indicating that Trichuris trichiura infection adversely affects these cognitive functions but the effect is reversible with treatment.

Abstract

A double-blind placebo trial was conducted to determine the effect of moderate to high loads of Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) infection on the cognitive functions of 159 school children (age 9–12 years) in Jamaica. Infected children were randomly assigned to Treatment or Placebo groups. A third group of randomly selected uninfected children were assigned to a Control for comparative purposes. The improvement in cognitive function was evaluated using a stepwise multiple linear regression, designed to control for any confounding variables. The expulsion of worms led to a significant improvement in tests of auditory short-term memory ( P &lt; 0.02; P &lt; 0.01), and a highly significant improvement in the scanning and retrieval of long-term memory ( P &lt; 0.001). After 9 weeks, treated children were no longer significantly different from an uninfected Control group in these three tests of cognitive function. The removal of T. trichiura was more important than Ascaris lumbricoides in determining this improvement. The results suggest that whipworm infection has an adverse effect on certain cognitive functions which is reversible by therapy.