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Association between prenatal exposure to poliovirus infection and adult schizophrenia

J Suvisaari1, J Haukka, A Tanskanen

  • 1National Public Health Institute, Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, Helsinki, Finland. jaana.suvisaari@ktl.fi

The American Journal of Psychiatry
|July 13, 1999
PubMed

Insights

Prenatal exposure to poliovirus infection may increase schizophrenia risk. This study found a link between poliovirus outbreaks and later schizophrenia diagnoses in offspring, particularly during the second trimester.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Epidemiology
  • Infectious Diseases

Background:

  • Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder with multifactorial etiology.
  • Prenatal environmental factors are increasingly recognized as potential contributors to schizophrenia risk.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between prenatal poliovirus infection and the subsequent development of schizophrenia.
  • To determine if maternal exposure to poliovirus during pregnancy influences schizophrenia risk in offspring.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register to identify 13,559 schizophrenia patients born between 1951-1969.
  • Collected data on monthly paralytic poliomyelitis cases by province in Finland.
  • Employed Poisson regression analysis, controlling for birth year, place, age, sex, season, and smoothed poliomyelitis incidence during gestation.

Main Results:

  • Observed a significant association between poliovirus incidence and births of individuals who later developed schizophrenia, with a 5-month lag.
  • The association was particularly pronounced during the second trimester of gestation when controlling for seasonality.

Conclusions:

  • Second-trimester prenatal exposure to poliovirus infection is a potential risk factor for developing schizophrenia later in life.
  • These findings suggest a possible role for viral infections in the prenatal environment in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.
Abstract

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