Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:57-61
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Congenital malformations and structural developmental anomalies in groups at high risk for psychosis
TF McNeil, G Blennow and L Lundberg
Department of Psychiatry, University of Lund, Malmo, Sweden.
OBJECTIVE: Early somatic developmental anomalies may be one expression of a
genetic influence toward psychosis. The purpose of this study was to
investigate whether higher rates of early developmental anomalies are
associated with heightened genetic risk for psychosis. METHOD: Rates of
congenital malformations and minor structural developmental anomalies were
prospectively investigated in 84 high-risk offspring of women with
histories of psychosis of nonorganic origin (schizophrenic,
schizoaffective, affective, and other psychoses) and in 100 offspring of
demographically similar control women with no history of psychosis. Data
were collected by means of multiple physical examinations through the first
3-4 years of the offspring's lives. RESULTS: The rates of total congenital
malformations were high, but the great majority of these malformations in
both the index group and the control group represented minor physical
aberrations. Rates of congenital malformations in the offspring of the
index women (or any specific diagnostic subgroup of these women) were not
different from those in the offspring of the control women. CONCLUSIONS:
The inferred genetic risk for psychosis does not appear to be associated
with greater rates of early somatic developmental anomalies, suggesting
that early developmental anomalies do not represent an expression of
genetic influence toward psychosis.
