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The Brain Damage Hypothesis of the Seasonality of Births in Schizophrenia and Major Affective Disorders: Evidence from Computerised Tomography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Emilio Sacchetti ,
Alessandro Calzeroni ,
Antonio Vita ,
Andrea Terzi ,
Franco Pollastro  and
Carlo Lorenzo Cazzullo
Emilio Sacchetti*
Affiliation:
Chief University Service of Psychiatry, Ospedale San Paolo, Milan
Alessandro Calzeroni
Affiliation:
University Service of Psychiatry, Ospedale San Paolo, Milan
Antonio Vita
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Milan University School of Medicine
Andrea Terzi
Affiliation:
University Service of Psychiatry, Ospedale San Paolo, Milan
Franco Pollastro
Affiliation:
University Service of Psychiatry, Ospedale San Paolo, Milan
Carlo Lorenzo Cazzullo
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Milan University School of Medicine
*
∗Professor E. Sacchetti, Chair of Psychosomatics, University Service of Psychiatry, Ospedale San Paolo, Via A. Di Rudini', 8-20142 Milano, Italy
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Abstract

Although the excess of schizophrenic births in the winter and early spring has been replicated and some non-conclusive work supports the same seasonal birth trend in patients with major affective disorders, the aetiopathogenetic foundations of this phenomenon remain uncertain. The primary role of perinatal seasonal factors that predispose to the development of schizophrenia via induction of brain damage has been invoked, as has a tendency for patients to conceive during the spring and early summer. In order to test these two hypotheses, cerebral ventricular size and cortical atrophy in 206 schizophrenics and 107 patients with major affective disorders were assessed by CT and analysed in relation to month of birth. Compared with schizophrenics born during the remainder of the year, those born between December and April, particularly in cases lacking a family history of schizophrenia, showed increased chances for ventricular enlargement, but not for cortical atrophy. No association between season of birth and central or cortical atrophy was found for patients with major affective disorders. This suggests that the brain-damaging effect played by perinatal seasonal factors has both a disease and an anatomical specificity.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 3 , March 1992 , pp. 390 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

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