Am J Psychiatry 1995; 152:1714-1720
Copyright © 1995 by American Psychiatric Association
Maternal influenza, obstetric complications, and schizophrenia
P Wright, N Takei, L Rifkin and RM Murray
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
OBJECTIVE: Epidemiologic studies have reported an association between
prenatal exposure to influenza and adult schizophrenia. The authors studied
this association in individual patients with schizophrenia and also
investigated the relationship of obstetric complications, another
postulated risk factor, to adult schizophrenia. METHOD: Using a structured
interview instrument, the authors assessed infections during pregnancy,
obstetric complications, gestational age, and birth weight by interviewing
the mothers of 121 patients with DSM-III-R schizophrenia. RESULTS:
Significantly more infections were reported in the second trimester of the
patients' gestations than in the combined first and third trimesters.
Influenza accounted for 70% of second- trimester infections. Patients with
schizophrenia whose mothers reported having influenza during the second
trimester were almost five times more likely to experience at least one
definite obstetric complication than were patients who were not exposed to
influenza during the second trimester; the exposed patients weighed a mean
of 210 g less at birth than the unexposed patients. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal
influenza during the second trimester may impair fetal growth and
predispose to obstetric complications and lower birth weight in a
proportion of individuals destined to develop schizophrenia.
