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Risk Factors in Schizophrenia

Season of Birth and Family History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Miron Baron  and
Rhoda Gruen
Miron Baron*
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Rhoda Gruen
Affiliation:
Division of Psychogenetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Senior Staff Associate in Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
*
∗Division of Psychogenetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 West 168th Street, New York 10032, USA
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Abstract

The association between the familial risk for schizophrenia and season of birth was studied in 88 schizophrenic patients. An increased risk for schizophrenia and ‘spectrum’ disorders was demonstrated among the first-degree relatives of winter and spring-born schizophrenic patients. However, patients with a family history of schizophrenia and ‘spectrum’ disorders did not differ from patients with no family history with respect to season of birth. Season of birth was unrelated to the sex of the patient, birth order, age at onset, or clinical subtypes (paranoid vs non-paranoid, as defined by the RDC, and ‘narrow’ vs ‘broad’, as defined by Taylor & Abrams' 1975 criteria). The morbid-risk data support a ‘stress-diathesis' hypothesis whereby environmental factors (in this case a seasonally varying viral insult may be implicated) interact with genetic vulnerability to increase the risk for schizophrenia.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 152 , Issue 4 , April 1988 , pp. 460 - 465
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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