Slower Growth In Early Life May Increase Risk Of Women Developing Schizophrenia, UK

Main Category: Schizophrenia
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 03 Dec 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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There is an association between slower growth in early life and schizophrenia in women, a new study from the USA has shown.

The researchers compared patterns of growth using serial measurements between people with schizophrenia and healthy people. Participants were children born between 1959 and 1967 in Alameda, California, whose mothers were taking part in a major Child Health and Development Study.

Measurements of height, weight and body mass index (BMI) were analysed to compare growth patterns during early life and later childhood between 70 people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (SSD) and 7710 without.

The study, published in the December 2007 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, was the first to use serial measurements to contrast patterns of early growth between people who subsequently developed SSD and those who did not.

It found that, for women, growth in the SSD group was approximately 1cm per year slower during early life. No association was observed for men.

Isolated measures of height did not differ between the 2 groups. The researchers comment that examination of patterns of growth using a series of successive, rather than isolated, measurements provides a more sensitive assessment of developmental abnormalities.

Later childhood growth was not associated with SSD, nor were weight patterns. Slower change in BMI was found in the SSD group during later childhood.

The results of this study are consistent with findings from a previous study of a small high-risk sample, suggesting that delayed physical growth during early life is associated with later schizophrenia. This study extends those findings by demonstrating this effect in a population-based group of people.

The researchers comment that these findings add to the increasing evidence that mechanisms responsible for the regulation of physical growth may have a role in causing schizophrenia. Slower growth in infancy is indicative of early disruption in a growth factor (IGF-1) that plays a major part in the regulation of both pre- and postnatal growth.

The link between IGF-1 and other adult diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and hypertension, has already been established. The researchers speculate that a disruption in IGF-1 might be a cause of abnormalities in neurodevelopment consistent with schizophrenia.

Delays in speech and neuromotor development, and poor intellectual functioning, are early life precursors of adult schizophrenia. The link between neurocognitive functioning and IGF-1 is supported by a recent study of healthy children, which found a positive correlation between IGF-1 levels and intelligence.

Hence, say the researchers, it is possible that cognitive abnormalities and poor intellectual functioning observed prior to the development of schizophrenia might occur in part because of a disturbance in IGF-1.

Reference

Perrin MA, Chen H, Sandberg DE, Malaspina D and Brown AS (2007) Growth trajectory during life and risk of adult schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 191, 512-520.

Royal College of Psychiatrists