Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:38:31.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Schizophrenia, Season of Birth, and Maternal Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Per Dalén
Per Dalén*
Affiliation:
The General Hospital, S-251 87 Helsingborg, Sweden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Maternal age is a neglected variable, with obvious implications for aetiology, in psychiatric research. In samples of schizophrenic patients, the distributions by month of birth and maternal age at birth show remarkable anomalies. These phenomena may be connected, because the seasonal distribution of births varies with maternal age, probably as a result of the age-dependent changes of fertility. Preliminary attempts to describe the seasonal effect in schizophrenia as a function of the shift in mean maternal age are not wholly successful at the quantitative level. Southern-hemisphere findings do not seem to fit the predicted pattern. Examples from other areas of research are discussed (sudden unexpected death in infants, congenital dislocation of the hip, and handedness) in which the seasonal distributions of births, and the findings on maternal age, conform to different varieties of the expected relationship.

Type
Review Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 6 , December 1988 , pp. 727 - 733
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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

Andrén, L. & Palmén, K. (1963) Seasonal variation of birth dates of infants with congenital dislocation of the hip. Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica, 124, 127–131.Google Scholar
Badian, N. A. (1983) Birth order, maternal age, season of birth, and handedness. Cortex, 19, 451–463.Google Scholar
Bojanovsky, J. & Gerylovová, A. (1967) Die Beziehung der Schizophrenic zum Alter der Eltern der Patient en. Nervenarzt, 38, 40–42.Google Scholar
Boyd, J. H., Pulver, A. E. & Stewart, W. (1986) Season of birth: schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 173–186.Google Scholar
Bradbury, T. N. & Miller, G. A. (1985) Season of birth in schizophrenia: a review of evidence, methodology, and etiology. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 569–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Czeizel, A., Vizkelety, T. & Szentpéteri, J. (1972) Congenital dislocation of the hip in Budapest, Hungary. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 26, 15–22.Google ScholarPubMed
Dalén, P. (1965) Family history, the electroencephalogram and perinatal factors in manic conditions. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 41, 527–563.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dalén, P. (1975) Season of Birth: A Study of Schizophrenia and Other Mental Disorders. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Dalén, P. (1977) Maternal age and incidence of schizophrenia in the Republic of Ireland. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 301–305.Google Scholar
Davies, A. M. (1970) Uses of medical record linkage for the community: experience in the Jerusalem perinatal study. In Proceedings of the 5th International Scientific Meeting of the International Epidemiological Association, Primosten, Yugoslavia, 1968. Belgrade.Google Scholar
Dunn, P. M. (1976) Perinatal observations on the etiology of congenital dislocation of the hip. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 119, 11–22.Google Scholar
Fedrick, J. (1974) Sudden unexpected death in infants in the Oxford linkage area. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 28, 164–171.Google Scholar
Froggatt, P., Lynas, M. A. & MacKenzie, G. (1971) Epidemiology of sudden unexpected death in infants (“cot death”) in Northern Ireland. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 25, 119–134.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. (1986) Aspects of the epidemiology of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 554–561.Google Scholar
Hare, E. H. & Moran, P. A. P. (1979) Raised parental age in psychiatric patients: evidence for the constitutional hypothesis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 169–177.Google Scholar
Hays, P. (1984) The nosological status of schizophrenia. The Lancet, i, 1342–1345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelemen, A. (1977) Influence of parental age at conception in endogenous psychoses. In Medical Genetics. Proceedings of the Symposium at Debrecen-Hajduszoboszlo, Hungary 27–29 April 1976. (eds Szabó, G. & Papp, Z.) International Congress Series. No. 428. Excerpta Medica. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Kinnell, H. G. (1983) Parental age in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 204.Google Scholar
Leviton, A. & Kilty, T. (1979) Seasonal variation in the birth of left-handed schoolgirls. Archives of Neurology, 36, 115–116.Google Scholar
Moran, P. A. P. (1968) Maternal age and parental loss. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 207–214.Google Scholar
Murray, R. M., Lewis, S. W. & Reveley, A. M. (1985) Towards an aetiological classification of schizophrenia. The Lancet, i, 1023–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmén, K. (1984) Prevention of congenital dislocation of the hip. Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica, 55, (suppl.), 208.Google Scholar
Record, R. G. & Edwards, J. H. (1958) Environmental influences related to the aetiology of congenital dislocation of the hip. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 12, 8–22.Google Scholar
Registrar General (1951) Statistical Review of England & Wales for the Six Years 1940–1945, Text, vol. II, Civil. p. 107. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Robinson, G. W. (1968) Birth characteristics of children with congenital dislocation of the hip. American Journal of Epidemiology, 87, 275–284.Google Scholar
Ronnike, F. (1981) Seasonal conception by women in various age groups compared with the season of menarche. Danish Medical Bulletin, 28, 148–153.Google Scholar
Sandahl, B. (1978) Seasonal birth pattern in Sweden in relation to birth order and maternal age. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 57, 393–396.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Standfast, S. J., Jereb, S. & Janerich, D. T. (1980) The epidemiology of sudden infant death in upstate New York: II: Birth characteristics. American Journal of Public Health, 70, 1061–1067.Google Scholar
Wynne-Davies, R. (1972) The epidemiology of congenital dislocation of the hip. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 14, 515–517.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.