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Log inAcute stress in pregnancy can pass on schizophrenia: study
Acute stress in pregnancy can pass on schizophrenia: study
by Outspoken on Wed Aug 20, 2008 6:43 pm
Acute stress in pregnancy can pass on schizophrenia: study
AFP News Service
PARIS (AFP) - Pregant women subjected to traumatising stress are more likely to give birth to children who develop schizophrenia, according to a study published Thursday.
"The kind of stress in question are those that would be experienced in a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, a terrorist attack, or a sudden bereavement," explained lead author Dolores Malaspina, a researcher at New York University's School of Medicine.
Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder, characterised by delusions and hallucinations, that usually strikes in late adolescence or early adulthood -- and with often devastating results.
Malaspina and her colleagues looked at birth data for 88,829 people born in Jerusalem from 1964 to 1976 and cross-referenced it with Israel's national psychiatry registry.
They found that the offspring of women who were in their second month of pregnancy during the height of the Arab-Israel war in June of 1967 -- also known as the "Six Day War" -- showed a significantly higher rate of schizophrenia as they entered adulthood.
The study also highlighted a sharp difference in the impact on women and men.
Females who had been in their second month of fetal life during the conflict were 4.3 times more likely to develop the debilitating mental disease than women born at other times.
Males at the same stage of pre-natal life were only 1.2 times more likely to experience schizophrenia.
The researchers verified that other potential influences such as low birth weight or calorie intake had not played a role.
"It is a very striking confirmation of something that has been suspected for a long time," said Malaspina.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080820/hl_afp/healthmaternitydiseaseschizophrenia;_ylt=Am0ePworgKQozDSJbsFahems0NUE
(AFP/File/Evaristo Sa)
AFP News Service
PARIS (AFP) - Pregant women subjected to traumatising stress are more likely to give birth to children who develop schizophrenia, according to a study published Thursday.
"The kind of stress in question are those that would be experienced in a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, a terrorist attack, or a sudden bereavement," explained lead author Dolores Malaspina, a researcher at New York University's School of Medicine.
Schizophrenia is a complex brain disorder, characterised by delusions and hallucinations, that usually strikes in late adolescence or early adulthood -- and with often devastating results.
Malaspina and her colleagues looked at birth data for 88,829 people born in Jerusalem from 1964 to 1976 and cross-referenced it with Israel's national psychiatry registry.
They found that the offspring of women who were in their second month of pregnancy during the height of the Arab-Israel war in June of 1967 -- also known as the "Six Day War" -- showed a significantly higher rate of schizophrenia as they entered adulthood.
The study also highlighted a sharp difference in the impact on women and men.
Females who had been in their second month of fetal life during the conflict were 4.3 times more likely to develop the debilitating mental disease than women born at other times.
Males at the same stage of pre-natal life were only 1.2 times more likely to experience schizophrenia.
The researchers verified that other potential influences such as low birth weight or calorie intake had not played a role.
"It is a very striking confirmation of something that has been suspected for a long time," said Malaspina.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080820/hl_afp/healthmaternitydiseaseschizophrenia;_ylt=Am0ePworgKQozDSJbsFahems0NUE
(AFP/File/Evaristo Sa)
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
