The role of maternal infectious diseases during pregnancy in the etiology of schizophrenia in offspring

Abstract

SummaryIn 55 chronic schizophrenics, the occurrence of infectious diseases during their mothers’ pregnancies was investigated. Different psychiatric diagnostic systems were compared. Infections were reported by the mothers of familial and sporadic DSM III-R schizophrenics in equal proportion. However, applying Leonhard's classification, the frequency of infections was found to be significantly increased in ‘systematic’ schizophrenia (mainly exogenously induced in the view of Leonhard) compared to ‘unsystematic’ schizophrenia (mainly genetically determined according to Leonhard's findings). Most of the infections occurred during the second trimester (nine out of 13). Thus, in the ‘systematic’ forms of schizophrenia (low genetic loading), maternal infections in this crucial period of neurodevelopmenl would appear to be important causative factors in the cytoarchitectural deviance delected in the central nervous system of schizophrenics.