RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IMPAIRMENT OF PRENATAL BRAIN GROWTH AND FAMILY HISTORY OF PSYCHOSIS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Recently McNeil et al. (1993b), showed that schizophrenics had smaller head circumference (HC) at birth than controls. This small head size at birth was observed more commonly among schizophrenics without a fam ily history of psychosis than among familial schizophrenics, suggestin g that some prenatal environmental factors, rather than genetic factor s, are related to the impaired brain growth in utero. We attempted to replicate this finding in 100 Japanese schizophrenics (DSM-III-R), usi ng contemporaneous data on body measures at birth. Conversely, in the current study, HC at birth was found to be significantly smaller in sc hizophrenics with a family history of psychosis (N = 19) than those wi thout (N = 81). A multiple regression analysis, controlling for gender , gestational age, maternal age, birth order and year of birth, yielde d an overall reduction of about 1 cm in HC at birth among familial sch izophrenics compared with non familial schizophrenics. When HC at birt h in family history positive and negative groups was compared separate ly with the local population norms with adjustment for gender and gest ational age, familial and non-familial schizophrenics were both found to have significantly smaller HC at birth, although the difference was less marked for the latter. These results suggest that schizophrenics have delayed cerebral development in utero, and that genes which oper ate on prenatal neurodevelopment may play an important role in the aet iology of schizophrenia, although it is possible that some environment al factors may also be involved in the impaired brain growth. Copyrigh t (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.