Living with a cat during childhood does not cause mental illness later in life, a new study from University College London suggests, disputing earlier studies that caused alarm by linking cats to human mental illness.

We found that children who were born and raised in households that included cats at any time period that is, pregnancy, early and late childhood were not at a higher risk of having psychotic symptoms when they were 13 or 18 years old, researchers wrote in The Conversation . The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine on Wednesday .

The researchers used data from 5,000 children who took part in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children , which tracks the health of people born in 1991 and 1992:

We studied whether mothers who owned a cat while pregnant; when the child was four years old; and 10 years old, were more likely to have children who reported psychotic symptoms, such as paranoia or hallucinations, at age 13 and 18 years of age. Although most people who experience psychotic symptoms in adolescence will not develop psychotic disorders later in life, these symptoms often indicate an increased risk for such disorders and other mental illnesses, including depression.

So are cats bad for your mental health? Probably, not.

The findings are especially relevant since previous research suggested that there is a correlation between cat ownership in childhood and developing schizophrenia.

Researchers have previously theorized the culprit could be the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which separate studies have linked to mental health problems. Toxoplasma gondii can be transmitted through the feces of infected cats, though people can also contract the parasite from eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables.

In combination, those studies have repeatedly led to inflammatory headlines alleging that cats will make their owners crazy .