Maternal infectious diseases during pregnancy and obstetric complications in the etiology of distinct subtypes of schizophrenia: further evidence from maternal hospital records

Abstract

On the basis of 24 maternity hospital records, the current study investigated the validity of maternal recall and the relationship of maternal infections during pregnancy and obstetric complications (OCs) to different diagnostic subgroups of endogenous psychoses on which we reported previously in this journal. Maternal recall showed good agreement to maternity hospital records in the Lewis and Murray scale (vartheta = 0.74). With regard to infectious diseases during pregnancy maternal recall and records showed a weaker, but also good correlation (vartheta = 0.18). Psychoses with low genetic loading had more OCs than psychoses with high genetic loading. Maternal infectious diseases, especially during the fourth or fifth month of gestation, were significantly allocated to Leonhard's systematic schizophrenias. Data from maternity hospital records support our report that infectious diseases during midgestation and further perinatal complications seem to be important etiologic factors in systematic forms of schizophrenia without marked familial loading.