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Abnormal infant neurodevelopment predicts schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Barbara Fish1, Kenneth S Kendler

  • 1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California-Los Angeles, USA. bfish@ucla.edu

Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology
|August 12, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Early detection of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZSD) is possible. Pandysmaturation (PDM), a sign of defective neural integration in infants, predicts later SZSD diagnosis, even in offspring of mothers with schizophrenia.

Area of Science:

  • Neurodevelopmental disorders
  • Psychiatric genetics
  • Infant psychiatry

Background:

  • Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZSD) have long been associated with developmental abnormalities.
  • Early observations by Bender in the 1940s noted uneven maturation in children with schizophrenia.

Observation:

  • A novel index, pandysmaturation (PDM), was developed to identify defective neural integration in infants.
  • PDM is characterized by retarded cranial growth and erratic gross motor development.
  • Infants were assessed multiple times from birth to two years, with psychiatric follow-up into adulthood.

Findings:

  • Six infants exhibited PDM before eight months of age.
  • All five individuals diagnosed with lifetime SZSD had documented PDM.
  • PDM was significantly related to subsequent SZSD development (p < 0.0005).
  • Infants of mothers with schizophrenia showed higher rates of PDM and SZSD.

Implications:

  • Behavioral observations of aberrant neurodevelopment in infancy can precede SZSD.
  • These findings support the hypothesis of early neurodevelopmental origins of SZSD.
  • Early detection of PDM may enable timely intervention for at-risk infants.
Abstract

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