Certain events during pregnancy may disrupt brain growth in ways that markedly raise a child’s likelihood of developing schizophrenia as a young adult, according to new results from three independent, long-term studies.
Periods of oxygen deprivation in the fetus and second-trimester respiratory infections in the mother exhibited strong associations with adult schizophrenia in these investigations. Maternal obesity before pregnancy also foreshadowed many cases of adult schizophrenia.
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