Daughters of older fathers at increased schizophrenia risk

21 июля, 2003
LONDON Newswire reporters Children born when their fathers are 50 or older are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia, according to Danish and US researchers.And the risk may be slightly higher in girls than in boys, suggesting that a new mutation on the X chromosome might be the cause of some cases of schizophrenia. HMG - Health Newswire Professional via NewsEdge Corporation : LONDON By Health Newswire reporters Children born when their fathers are 50 or older are at increased risk of developing schizophrenia, according to Danish and US researchers.And the risk may be slightly higher in girls than in boys, suggesting that a new mutation on the X chromosome might be the cause of some cases of schizophrenia. Previous studies have suggested that advanced parental age could be a risk factor for schizophrenia. However, most of these studies did not control for other risk factors, such as death of a parent, family psychiatric history, or socio-economic factors. To address this, Dr Majella Byrne, of Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues conducted a case control study which compared 7,704 patients with schizophrenia with 192,590 time-, age-, and sex-matched controls, together with their siblings and parents. All participants were identified using a number of Danish national databases. Because every person born in Denmark is given a unique personal identification number at birth, which is used in all national registers, including health records, the researchers were able to access details on parents and siblings of schizophrenia patients, together with family psychiatric histories. As expected, the researchers found that increasing parental age was associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia in their children. However, after allowing for the fact that older mothers tend to be married to older fathers, only paternal age emerged as a significant risk factor. And after allowing for other known risk factors for schizophrenia, particularly a history of mental illness in either parent, the researchers found that men born when their father was aged 55 or more were at double the risk of developing schizophrenia. In women, however, the relationship was even stronger. The team found that women born to fathers aged 50 or over were more than twice as likely to develop schizophrenia. This increased to a nearly fourfold risk in those born to fathers aged 55 or more. Reference: Byrne et al, Archives of General Psychiatry 2003;60:673-678 HMG Worldwide 2003 http://www.health-news.co.uk/ Publication: HMG - Health Newswire Professional Distributed by Financial Times Information Limited <> << Copyright ©2003 Financial Times Limited, All Rights Reserved >>
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