Childhood-onset schizophrenia and obstetric complications: a case--control study

Obstetric complications (OCs) may be a risk factor for developing schizophrenia. In a recent study of a meta-analysis, the odds ratio for the development of the disorder in adulthood associated with OCs has been reported to be about 2.0 (i.e., a two-fold increase in risk). However, little attention has been paid to the involvement of OCs in risk of the development of childhood-onset schizophrenia. Therefore, the authors examined the relationship between OCs and childhood-onset schizophrenia. Thirty-three children, aged 8-13 years (average 12.4 years), meeting the DSM-III-R criteria for schizophrenia, were compared with controls (children with anxiety disorder) matched for sex and age. Childhood-onset schizophrenics showed significantly greater scores in all of the three measures of OCs according to Parnas et al.'s scale compared with controls. Moreover, those individuals exposed to OCs were 3.5 times as likely to develop schizophrenia as were those without OCs. The risk association between OCs and the disorder was far greater for male than for female schizophrenics. Our results, together with those in previous studies showing the association between OCs and adult-onset schizophrenia, suggest that childhood- and adult-onset schizophrenia may, at least in part, share a common neuropathogenesis.