American Psychiatric Association recently presented a study linking (prenatal) influenza exposure with schizophrenia. Children born to women who contract the flu during pregnancy appear to have an increased risk for schizophrenia later in life.
According to the findings prenatal influenza exposure may account for about 14 percent of schizophrenia cases.
In the present study, stored maternal blood samples from 64 patients with schizophrenia and 125 subjects without the disease were tested for antibodies to determine if flu exposure had occurred during pregnancy.
First trimester exposure to influenza raised the risk of schizophrenia by sevenfold, and exposure at any time during the first half of pregnancy increased the risk threefold.
“Exactly how prenatal influenza exposure may lead to schizophrenia is unclear, but it could involve direct effects from the virus or indirect effects involving chemicals that are released in response to the virus”, Dr. Alan S. Brown, from Columbia University in New York.