Schizophrenia higher in war zone pregnancy

NEW YORK, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Women pregnant in a war zone are more likely to give birth to a child who develops schizophrenia, New York researchers said.

Lead author Dr. Dolores Malaspina, Anita Steckler and Joseph Steckler of the New York University School of Medicine said that the finding supports a growing body of literature that attributes maternal exposure to severe stress during the early months of pregnancy to an increased susceptibility to schizophrenia in the offspring.

"The stresses in question are those that would be experienced in a natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane, a terrorist attack or a sudden bereavement," Malaspina said in a statement.

Data from 88,829 people, born in Jerusalem from 1964 to 1976, were collected from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study that linked birth records to Israel's Psychiatric Registry.

The study, published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, found the offspring of women who were in their second month of pregnancy during the height of the Arab-Israeli war in June of 1967 -- the Six Day War -- displayed a significantly higher incidence of schizophrenia over the following 21 to 33 years. The study also showed that the pattern was gender-specific, affecting females more than males.