Schizophrenia After Prenatal Famine

TLDR

Earlier research suggested that prenatal nutritional deficiency could contribute to schizophrenia, prompting this study to test the hypothesis with more precise exposure and outcome data. The authors compared schizophrenia risk among individuals born in western Netherlands during 1944–1946, contrasting those exposed to the Dutch Hunger Winter in early gestation with unexposed peers, using national psychiatric registry data on hospitalized cases aged 24–48. Those conceived at the famine’s peak had a twofold, statistically significant increase in schizophrenia risk (RR = 2.0, 95 % CI 1.2–3.4, p < 0.01) in both men and women, with the highest risk observed in the exposed cohort, supporting a role for prenatal nutritional deficiency in schizophrenia etiology.

Abstract

<h3>Background:</h3> Suggestive findings of an earlier study that prenatal nutritional deficiency was a determinant of schizophrenia prompted us to undertake a second test of the hypothesis using more precise data on both exposure and outcome. <h3>Methods:</h3> Among persons born in the cities of western Netherlands during 1944 through 1946, we compared the risk for schizophrenia in those exposed and unexposed during early gestation to the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944/1945. The frequency of hospitalized patients with schizophrenia at age 24 to 48 years in the exposed and unexposed birth cohorts was ascertained from a national psychiatric registry. <h3>Results:</h3> The most exposed birth cohort, conceived at the height of the famine, showed a twofold and statistically significant increase in the risk for schizophrenia (relative risk [RR] = 2.0; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.2 to 3.4;<i>P</i>&lt;.01) in both men (RR = 1.9; 95% CI = 1.0 to 3.7;<i>P</i>=.05) and women (RR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.0 to 4.7;<i>P</i>=.04). Among all birth cohorts of 1944 through 1946, the risk for schizophrenia clearly peaked in this exposed cohort. <h3>Conclusion:</h3> Prenatal nutritional deficiency may play a role in the origin of some cases of schizophrenia.