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EMBARGOED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1, 2002
AMERICAN STUDY CONFIRMS FINDINGS POINTING TO PATERNAL AGE AS RISK FACTOR FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA IN OFFSPRING Recent findings by researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) have confirmed the results of a study published last year on the increased likelihood of older fathers having children with schizophrenia. Dr. Alan Brown, a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University, is the lead investigator of the latest study seen in the September 1 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. His is the first study to replicate the findings published last year by Dr. Dolores Malaspina, who is also a researcher at the Psychiatric Institute and a co-investigator in this new study. Dr. Brown and his colleagues extended the work of that prior study by conducting direct interviews with subjects in order to obtain more precision and utilizing diagnoses of schizophrenia in addition to the broader category of schizophrenia-related disorders. Subjects for the study were drawn from a large, diverse group of mothers in California who were members of a single health plan, which maintained records of all psychiatric and medical care received by members. (Last year’s published report was based on research conducted by reviewing records of people born in Israel.) From a subsample of 12,094 offspring who were covered under the plan from 1981 to 1997 and who were born between 1959 and1967, seventy-one (71) were determined to have schizophrenia or a schizophrenia-related disorder. Sixty-eight of those were included in the final analysis and of that group, 43 were diagnosed with schizophrenia. Dr. Brown and
colleagues found that for fathers who were aged 45 or greater at the time
of the offspring’s birth, there was a threefold increased risk of
schizophrenia in the offspring. Though these findings bolster the
argument for focusing on gene-related causes, such as new mutations, the
findings of the present study do not address the question of specific
genetic factors in schizophrenia. In order to determine that, says Dr.
Brown, assessments of family history and molecular genetic studies will be
necessary. This work is already under way, as is research led by Dr. Brown
that includes brain imaging of the schizophrenia cases and matched
controls from this pool of subjects in California. |