Parental reproductive problems and gestational hormonal exposure in autistic and schizophrenic children

The incidence of infertility and two or more spontaneous abortions was significantly increased in the parents, compared to that reported for the general population, in this pilot survey of 61 patients evaluated for major childhood psychoses. In addition, 18% of our patients had a history of early gestational exposure to progesterone/estrogen compounds (9 patients) and to cortisone (2 patients). This frequency of gestational hormoné exposure was significantly increased over that in normal infants from three published surveys. However, in 5 of the 11 patients with gestational hormonal exposure, the medication was prescribed because of prior parental reproductive problems or bleeding during the current pregnancy. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that the gestational hormonal exposure was causally related to the psychoses present in these patients. In order to obtain more conclusive data, there will need to be continued monitoring of parental reproductive histories and gestational environmental exposures in autistic and schizophrenic children.