Fertility and fecundity of an outpatient sample with schizophrenia

To determine reproductive rates among patients with schizophrenia who attended the outpatient clinic at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo.

All patients with schizophrenia completed a semi-standardized questionnaire, and data from the Brazilian census was used for comparing population rates.

167 patients completed the questionnaires and of these 33 (19.8%) were or had been married and 32 reported being a parent. The fertility rate (number of individuals who had had at least one child divided by the total number of individuals) was 19.4% (25% for females, 15.8% for males, p = 0.14). Fecundity rate was 1.75 for males and 1.69 for females (p = 0.85). A logistic regression analysis identified an association between the later date of the onset of illness and higher rate of marriage (p = 0.003). Gender and the interaction between gender and marital status were significant predictors for fertility (p < 0.05 and p = 0.024, respectively).

Patients with schizophrenia showed lower rates for marital status, fertility and fecundity when compared to standard population rates. However, many patients will become parents during their life time. Therefore, it is imperative to develop services that fulfill their needs, mainly in Brazil, a middle-income country, where resources are scarce and there is no policy for dealing with this reality.