Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T17:57:17.140Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paternal ages below or above 35 years old are associated with a different risk of schizophrenia in the offspring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

M. Wohl  and
P. Gorwood
M. Wohl
Affiliation:
INSERM U675, 16 rue Henri Huchard 75018Paris, France AP-HP (Paris VII), C.H.U Louis Mourier, Service de psychiatrie du Professeur Adés, 178 rue des Renouillers, 92701Colombes Cedex, France
P. Gorwood*
Affiliation:
INSERM U675, 16 rue Henri Huchard 75018Paris, France AP-HP (Paris VII), C.H.U Louis Mourier, Service de psychiatrie du Professeur Adés, 178 rue des Renouillers, 92701Colombes Cedex, France
*
*Corresponding author. INSERM U675, CHU Louis Mourier, AP-HP (Paris VII), 178, rue des Renouillers, 92701 Colombes Cedex, France. Tel.: +33 0147 60 6413; fax: +33 0147 60 67 40. E-mail address: [email protected] (P. Gorwood).
Get access

Abstract

Background

A link between older age of fatherhood and an increased risk of schizophrenia was detected in 1958. Since then, 10 studies attempted to replicate this result with different methods, on samples with different origins, using different age classes. Defining a cut-off at which the risk is significantly increased in the offspring could have an important impact on public health.

Methods

A meta-analysis (Meta Win®) was performed, assessing the mean effect size for each age class, taking into account the difference in age class references, and the study design.

Results

An increased risk is detected when paternal age is below 20 (compared to 20–24), over 35 (compared to below 35), 39 (compared to less than 30), and 54 years old (compared to less than 25). Interestingly, 35 years appears nevertheless to be the lowest cut-off where the OR is always above 1, whatever the age class reference, and the smallest value where offspring of fathers below or above this age have a significantly different risk of schizophrenia.

Conclusion

No threshold can be precisely defined, but convergent elements indicate ages below or above 35 years. Using homogeneous age ranges in future studies could help to clarify a precise threshold.

Keywords

SchizophreniaPaternal ageMeta-analysis
Type
Genetic Epidemiology and Its Methods
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , January 2007 , pp. 22 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, A.S., Schaefer, C.A., Wyatt, R.J., Begg, M.D., Goetz, R., Bresnahan, M.A.et al.Paternal age and risk of schizophrenia in adult offspring. Am J Psychiatry 2002;159(9):1528–1533.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrne, M., Agerbo, E., Ewald, H., Eaton, W.W., Mortensen, P.B.Parental age and risk of schizophrenia: a case–control study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2003;60(7):673–678.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalman, C., Allebeck, P.Paternal age and schizophrenia: further support for an association. Am J Psychiatry 2002;159(9):1591–1592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
El-Saadi, O., Pedersen, C.B., McNeil, T.F., Saha, S., Welham, J., O'Callaghan, E.et al.Paternal and maternal age as risk factors for psychosis: findings from Denmark, Sweden and Australia. Schizophr Res 2004;67(2–3):227–2736.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johanson, E.A study of schizophrenia in the male: a psychiatric and social study based on 138 cases with follow up. Acta Psychiatr Neurol Scand Suppl 1958;125:1–132.Google ScholarPubMed
Malaspina, D., Corcoran, C., Fahim, C., Berman, A., Harkavy-Friedman, J., Yale, S.et al.Paternal age and sporadic schizophrenia: evidence for de novo mutations. Am J Med Genet 2002;114(3):299–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malaspina, D., Harlap, S., Fennig, S., Heiman, D., Nahon, D., Feldman, D.et al.Advancing paternal age and the risk of schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58(4):361–367.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Modell, B., Kuliev, A.Changing paternal age distribution and the human mutation rate in. Eur Hum Genet 1990;86(2):198–202.Google ScholarPubMed
Rosenberg, M.S., Adams, D.C., Gurevitch, J.Meta Win. Statistical software for meta-analysis. Version 2. Massachusetts: Sinauer Associates, Sunderland; 2000.Google Scholar
Sipos, A., Rasmussen, F., Harrison, G., Tynelius, P., Lewis, G., Leon, D.A.et al.Paternal age and schizophrenia: a population based cohort study. BMJ 2004;329(7474):1070.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stroup, D.F., Berlin, J.A., Morton, S.C., Olkin, I., Williamson, G.D., Rennie, D.et al.Meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology: a proposal for reporting. Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) Group. JAMA 2000;283(15):2008–2012.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tsuchiya, K.J., Takagai, S., Kawai, M., Matsumoto, H., Nakamura, K., Minabe, Y.et al.Advanced paternal age associated with an elevated risk for schizophrenia in offspring in a Japanese population. Schizophr Res. 2005;76(2–3):337–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verstraete, M.Value and limitation of meta-analysis. Pathophysiol Haemost Thromb 2002 Sep–Dec;32(5–6):278–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zammit, S., Allebeck, P., Dalman, C., Lundberg, I., Hemmingson, T., Owen, M.J.et al.Paternal age and risk for schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 2003;183:405–408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.