Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
The existence of early environmental risk factors for schizophrenia is central to the notion of schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder (Marenco and Weinberger, 2000; McDonald et al., 2000) and these risk factors represent some of the most challenging and interesting targets of schizophrenia epidemiology. This chapter discusses prenatal and perinatal risk factors for schizophrenia. Childhood developmental impairment and later environmental and psychosocial risk factors are dealt with in Chs. 22 and 13, respectively.
Prenatal risk factors for schizophrenia
Time and place of birth
The risk of developing schizophrenia has consistently been found to be increased (1.5 to 2-fold) among those born in cities compared with those born in rural areas (Lewis et al., 1992; Marcelis et al., 1998; Mortensen et al., 1999; Takei et al., 1995; Torrey and Bowler, 1990). Studies that have teased apart the effects of urban birth and urban living (Marcelis et al., 1999) have found that the greatest risk was for those born in urban areas, with no additional effect of later urban residence, indicating that the urban risk factor or factors associated with an increase in risk of schizophrenia appear to act in early life rather than around the time of illness onset. Linear trends for risk of schizophrenia with increasing population density of area of birth have been noted (Marcelis et al., 1998; Mortensen et al., 1999).
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