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Author's reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

S. J. Leask ,
D. J. Done ,
T. J. Crow ,
M. Richards  and
P. B. Jones
S. J. Leask
Affiliation:
School of Community Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, Psychiatry & Community Mental Health, Duncan Macmillan House, Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA
D. J. Done
Affiliation:
Division of Psychology, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield
T. J. Crow
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
M. Richards
Affiliation:
MRC National Survey of Health and Development, University College London Medical School, London
P. B. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge
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Extract

Mukherjee & Galanis express enthusiasm for the hypothesis that breast-feeding protects the infant against later schizophrenia. This despite widely published evidence, referenced at the beginning of our article, for a lack of any substantial relationship between breastfeeding and cognitive, emotional and social development in children (i.e. a lack of predictive validity of abnormal central nervous system development).

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The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 178 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 83
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Mukherjee & Galanis express enthusiasm for the hypothesis that breast-feeding protects the infant against later schizophrenia. This despite widely published evidence, referenced at the beginning of our article, for a lack of any substantial relationship between breast-feeding and cognitive, emotional and social development in children (i.e. a lack of predictive validity of abnormal central nervous system development).

We examined the hypothesis in two cohorts (the 1946 National Survey of Health and Development (n=4447) and the 1958 National Child Development study (n=18 856)) in which the possibility of recall bias does not arise because, in contrast with the earlier report, the data were prospectively collected with respect to outcome. We observe no evidence that an individual's breast-feeding experience is significantly related to her/his later risk of schizophrenia.

May we suggest to those who wish to persuade us that the hypothesis is still viable that there is an onus to present findings from a larger and better-documented population.

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