Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-qdpjg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-23T01:58:13.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unwantedness of a Pregnancy and Schizophrenia in the Child

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Antero Myhrman ,
Paula Rantakallio ,
Matti Isohanni ,
Peter Jones  and
Ursula Partanen
Antero Myhrman*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Finland
Paula Rantakallio
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Finland
Matti Isohanni
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Finland
Peter Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham, UK
Ursula Partanen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Finland
*
Antero Myhrman, Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, FIN-90220 Oulu, Finland. Fax: +358–81–537 5661
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Maternal stress during pregnancy has been suggested as a risk factor for schizophrenia We tested the hypothesis that being the child of an unwanted pregnancy would be associated with later schizophrenia.

Methods

Data were collected prospectively in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort of 11 017 individuals. In the sixth or seventh month of pregnancy mothers were asked whether the pregnancy was wanted, mistimed but wanted or unwanted. Schizophrenia diagnoses in the cohort members were obtained from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register.

Results

Seventy-six cases of DSM–III–R schizophrenia were identified in the whole cohort between the ages of 16 and 28 years; a cumulative incidence of 0.7%, compared with 1.5% for those bom from unwanted pregnancies. The risk of later schizophrenia among unwanted children was raised compared with wanted or mistimed children, even after adjustment for confounding by sociodemographic, pregnancy and perinatal variables (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2–4.8).

Conclusions

The results suggest that unwantedness may operate either directly as a psychosocial stress during development making children more liable to schizophrenia or it may be a marker for behaviours associated with risk in either the mother or the child.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 169 , Issue 5 , November 1996 , pp. 637 - 640
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996 

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

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Huttunen, M. & Niskanen, P. (1978) Prenatal loss of father and psychiatric disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 427–431.Google Scholar
Isohanni, M., Partanen, U., Moring, J., et al (1996) The validity of clinical diagnoses of schizophrenia in the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, in press.Google Scholar
Jones, P., Rodgers, B., Murray, R., et al (1994) Child developmental risk factors for adult schizophrenia in the British 1946 birth cohort. Lancet, 344, 1398–1402.Google Scholar
Jones, P., Rantakallio, P., Hartikainen, A.-L., et al (1996) Does schizophrenia result from pregnancy, delivery and perinatal complications? A 28 year study in the North Finland Birth Cohort European Psychiatry, 11, 242.Google Scholar
Kubicka, L., Matejcek, Z., David, H. P., et al (1995) Children from unwanted pregnancies in Prague, Czech Republic revisited at age thirty. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 91, 361–369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, L., Cooper, P. J. & Stein, A. (1991) Postnatal depression and infant development. British Medical Journal, 302, 978–979.Google Scholar
Myhrman, A. (1992) Unwanted pregnancy, its occurrence and significance for the family and the child. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis, Series D Medica, No. 249, 1–46.Google Scholar
Myhrman, A., Olsén, P., Rantakallio, P., et al (1995) Does the wantedness of a pregnancy predict a child's educational attainment? Family Planning Perspectives, 27, 116–119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rantakallio, P. (1969) Groups at risk in low birth weight infants and perinatal mortality. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica, Suppl. 193, 1–71.Google Scholar
Rantakallio, P. (1974) The unwanted child. Acta Universitatis Ouluensis, Series D Medica, No. 8, 1–46.Google Scholar
Rantakallio, P., von Wendt, L. & Koivu, M. (1987) Prognosis of perinatal brain damage: a prospective study of a one year birth cohort of 12 000 children. Early Human Development, 15, 75–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rantakallio, P., von Wendt, , Jones, P., et al (1995) CNS infection during childhood and mental disorders in adulthood. Federation of Infection Society, Second Biennial Conference, Manchester, 1995. Abstracts, 59.Google Scholar
Sacker, A., Done, D. J., Crow, T. J., et al (1995) Antecedents of schizophrenia and affective illness. Obstetric complications. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 734–741.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tienari, P., Wynne, L., Moring, J., et al (1994) The Finnish Adoptive Family Study of schizophrenia. Implications for family research. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164 (suppl. 23), 20–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberger, D. R. (1995) From neuropathology to neurodevelopment. Lancet, 346, 552–557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.