Early life stress and schizophrenia: a retrospective case-control study

Abstract

A total of 105 patients with first-episode schizophrenia (male=51, female=54) and 99 normal controls (male=51, female=48) were included into this retrospective case-control study.Childhood trauma questionnaire-28 item short form (CTQ-SF) was used to assess the experience of childhood abuse.The result of binary logistic regression showed that emotional abuse(β=0.630, P<0.05)and emotional neglect(β=0.270, P<0.05)were included into the final model of predicting schizophrenia.It indicates that patients with first-episode schizophrenia experienced more early life stress than controls.Particularly emotional abuse and emotional neglect may play important roles in the onset of schizophrenia. Key words: Early life stress; Schizoprenia