Word: schizophrenia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Severe emotional stress during the first delicate months of a woman's pregnancy may permanently impair the neurodevelopment of her unborn child, leading to an increased risk of schizophrenia later in life, new research suggests...
...study group consisted of 1.38 million births recorded in Denmark, from 1973 to 1995. Children were followed from age 10 until their death, their departure from Denmark, the onset of schizophrenia or the end of the study period in 2005. Researchers determined also whether the birth mothers had suffered extreme stress - due either to the death or illness (heart attack, cancer or stroke) of a first-degree relative - six months prior to and at any time during pregnancy. The data showed that women who experienced a close family member's death during the first three months of pregnancy...
...child to cause more injury than the death of a parent. Indeed, says Abel, her data hinted at such a response - compared with women who lost a parent, those who lost a child appeared to have a higher likelihood of giving birth to a child at risk for schizophrenia - but her sample size was too small to confirm the theory...
...whether they can expect plenty - a clear evolutionary advantage," says Abel. "But it may be that in some settings, it has an adverse consequence because it restricts the growth of the fetus, and perhaps causes abnormal development of the brain, which makes it more susceptible to diseases, such as schizophrenia...
Though the current study looked only at schizophrenia risk, Abel and her collaborators at the University of Aarhus believe that maternal stress may have a similar effect on the risk of other conditions, among them depression and other mental disorders, along with social consequences such as the risk of criminal conviction or the likelihood of marriage, "things that tend to cluster in the deprived," says Abel. "We have not shown that this is specific to schizophrenia. We've just only looked at schizophrenia...