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Risk of neurological, eye and ear disease in offspring to parents with schizophrenia or depression compared with offspring to healthy parents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2018

Elin Dianna Gunnarsdóttir ,
Jonas Hällgren ,
Christina M Hultman ,
Thomas F McNeil ,
Milita Crisby  and
Sven Sandin
Elin Dianna Gunnarsdóttir
Affiliation:
University of Akureyri, Solborg, Nordurslod, Akureyri, Iceland
Jonas Hällgren
Affiliation:
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Family Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Christina M Hultman
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Thomas F McNeil
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Milita Crisby
Affiliation:
Department of Neurobiology, Care Science and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Sven Sandin*
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, New York, NY, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Sven Sandin, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background

Neurological, visual and hearing deviations have been observed in the offspring of parents with schizophrenia. This study test whether children to parents hospitalized with schizophrenia have increased the likelihood of childhood neurological disorder.

Methods

Among all parents in Sweden born 1950–1985 and with offspring born 1968–2002: 7107 children with a parent hospitalized for schizophrenia were compared to 172 982 children with no parents hospitalized for schizophrenia or major depression, as well as to 32 494 children with a parent hospitalized for major depression as a control population with another severe psychiatric outcome. We estimated relative risks (RR) and two-sided 95% confidence intervals calculated from Poisson regression.

Results

Children to parents with schizophrenia were more likely than controls to have been hospitalized before the age of 10 with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy, RR = 1.76 (95% CI: 1.15–2.69); epilepsy, RR = 1.78 (95% CI: 1.33–2.40), combined neurological disease, RR = 1.33 (95% CI: 1.11–1.60) and certain diseases of the eye, RR = 1.92 (95% CI: 1.17–3.15) and ear, RR = 1.18 (95% CI: 1.05–1.32). Similar disease-risk-pattern was found for children to parents hospitalized with a diagnosis of major depression. A specific risk increase for strabismus RR = 1.21 (95%CI: 1.05–1.40) was found for off-spring with parental depression.

Conclusions

Compared with children to healthy parents, children to parents with schizophrenia have increased risk of a variety of neurological disorders as well as visual and hearing disorders at an early age. The risk increase was not specific to schizophrenia but was also seen in children to parents with a diagnosis of major depression.

Keywords

Ear diseaseepidemiologyeye diseasemajor depressionneurodevelopmentneurological diseaseoffspringpopulation basedSchizophrenia
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 48 , Issue 16 , December 2018 , pp. 2710 - 2716
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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