Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93802
Title: Obstetric complications in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings
Authors: McDonald, C.
Taylor, M.
Zhao, J.
Sham, P.
Grech, Anton
Schulze, K.
Bramon, E.
Murray, R. M.
Keywords: Schizophrenia -- Etiology
Mental illness in pregnancy
Pregnancy in mentally ill women
Postpartum psychiatric disorders
Mental illness in pregnancy -- Treatment
Postpartum psychiatric disorders -- Treatment
Schizophrenia -- Genetic aspects
Schizophrenia -- Pathophysiology
Cerebral cortex
Schizophrenia -- Diagnosis
Issue Date: 2005
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Citation: Walshe, M., McDonald, C., Taylor, M., Zhao, J., Sham, P., Grech, A., ... & Murray, R. M. (2005). Obstetric complications in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings. European Psychiatry, 20(1), 28-34.
Abstract: Objective We sought to explore whether obstetric complications (OCs) are more likely to occur in the presence of familial/genetic susceptibility for schizophrenia or whether they themselves represent an independent environmental risk factor for schizophrenia.
Methods The presence of OCs was assessed through maternal interview on 216 subjects, comprising 36 patients with schizophrenia from multiply affected families, 38 of their unaffected siblings, 31 schizophrenic patients with no family history of psychosis, 51 of their unaffected siblings and 60 normal comparison subjects. We examined the familiality of OCs and whether OCs were commoner in the patient and sibling groups than in the control group.
Results OCs tended to cluster within families, especially in multiply affected families. Patients with schizophrenia, especially those from multiply affected families, had a significantly higher rate of OCs compared to normal comparison subjects, but there was no evidence for an elevated rate of OCs in unaffected siblings.
Conclusion Our data provides little evidence for a link between OCs and genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia. If high rates of OCs are related to schizophrenia genes, this relationship is weak and will only be detected by very large sample sizes.
URI: https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/93802
Appears in Collections:Scholarly Works - FacM&SPsy

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