Schizophrenia and offspring's risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes and infant death.

Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Emma.Nilsson@Socialstyrelsen.se

BACKGROUND: Women with schizophrenia are at increased risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. It is not known whether offspring born to fathers with schizophrenia also have an increased risk. AIMS: To evaluate paternal and maternal influences on the association between schizophrenia and pregnancy outcomes. METHOD: A record linkage including 2 million births was made using Swedish population-based registers. The risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes was evaluated through logistic regression. RESULTS: Offspring with a mother or father with schizophrenia faced a doubled risk of infant mortality, which could not be explained by maternal behaviour alone during pregnancy. Excess infant death risk was largely attributable to post-neonatal death. Maternal factors (e.g. smoking) explained most of the other risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes among both mothers and fathers with schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: The risks to offspring whose fathers had schizophrenia suggest that, in addition to maternal risk behaviour, non-optimal social and/or parenting circumstances are of importance.

PMID: 18827293 [PubMed - in process]