Pregnancy Stress and Schizophrenia

New research is showing that there may be a correlation between the mother's stress in the first trimester of pregnancy and schizophrenia in her child.

The Archives of General Psychiatry has published new research on how the mother's stress during pregnancy may affect her child. Over a 22 year period, this study was conducted on women who were exposed to a number of a stressors 6 months prior to conception and during pregnancy. These stressors included death of a close relative or a major illness of a relative such as a stroke or heart attack.

The children whose mothers were exposed to these stressors were then followed from the age of 10 until death to identify any onset of schizophrenia.

What researchers did find was that the death of a close relative during the mother's first trimester of pregnancy did increase the chance of schizophrenia in her offspring. The other stressors did not increase the child's chance of schizophrenia.

This study shows another example of the complexities of the intra-uterine life of the baby and what happens to the mother, including her emotions, does have an affect on her baby.

Brenda