A prospective study based on the U.S. National Collaborative Perinatal Project and using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) found lower test scores for the Coding subtest in ...preschizophrenic children than in their unaffected siblings. Using data on cognitive functioning in adolescence, the aim of the present prospective study was to examine whether low scores on Coding is associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The 12 subtests of the WISC were administered to 311 children and adolescents with a mean age of 15.1 years (range: 8 to 20 years), and the diagnostic assessment (DSM-IIIR) was conducted by senior clinicians 25 years later. The group with schizophrenia spectrum disorder consisted of 84 individuals, and this group obtained significantly lower scores on Coding than nonschizophrenic controls. This difference could not be explained by differences in WISC IQ. Logistic regression analysis controlling for age at examination, gender, and social status yielded a significant, but relatively weak, association between low Coding test score and risk of schizophrenia spectrum disorder. For each unit increase in the Coding raw score, the adjusted odds ratio was 0.97 (95% CI 0.94-1.00) (p = .022), and the risk of schizophrenia spectrum disorder decreased by 3% (95% CI 6 to 0%). The Coding deficit on the WISC may indicate deficits in perceptual motor speed or in working memory processing speed in young individuals who later develop schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder, or other disorders within the schizophrenia spectrum.
We reported previously that residents of Greater Helsinki, Finland, whose mothers were exposed to the 1957 influenza epidemic during their second trimester of gestation had a significantly elevated ...risk of developing adult schizophrenia. The majority of the replication studies to date have not determined whether the mothers actually contracted an infection or the stage of gestation based on mother's last menstruation. We read prenatal clinic records of the mothers of the Helsinki-born schizophrenia subjects to determine timing of infection, as noted by the prenatal clinic obstetric nurse at a time close to the actual infection. Schizophrenia subjects who were exposed in the second trimester had a significantly higher rate of definite influenza infection (86.7%) in that period compared to those who were exposed during the first and third trimesters (20.0%). These results are interpreted with caution because of the small number of cases.
This study examines the role of elevated autonomic nervous system reactivity in protecting individuals at high risk for criminal behavior from antisocial outcomes. The authors hypothesized that ...subjects with criminal fathers who did not become criminals themselves were biologically protected from such an outcome because of, in part, heightened responsiveness of the autonomic nervous system.
Ninety-four male subjects were placed into one of four study groups: criminal with criminal father (N = 26), noncriminal with criminal father (N = 24), criminal with noncriminal father (N = 20), and noncriminal with noncriminal father (N = 24). Skin conductance and heart rate data were gathered in an orienting paradigm.
Skin conductance and heart rate orienting reactivity were found to be significantly higher in the group of noncriminal subjects with criminal fathers than in the other three groups.
For subjects at high risk for criminal behavior, heightened autonomic nervous system responsiveness appears to be associated with lower likelihood of criminal outcome.
Objective: The relationship between suicide and social class has been equivocal. While some authors have reported that higher social class is related to higher rates of suicide, most other studies ...report that lower social class is associated with higher rates of suicide. Our study attempted to resolve these inconsistencies by using a High Risk for schizophrenia method.
Method: Children of women with severe schizophrenia were assessed in 1962. In 2005, when subjects were a mean age of 58 years, we identified those who had committed suicide.
Results: A higher rate of suicide was associated with risk for schizophrenia in the High‐Risk sample. Higher social class origin was associated with suicide in persons at risk for mental illness.
Conclusion: Higher social class origin was associated with suicide in subjects at genetic risk for schizophrenia (but not those without risk).
Previous studies have repeatedly shown verbal intelligence deficits in adolescent antisocial individuals, but it is not known whether these deficits are in place prior to kindergarten or, ...alternatively, whether they are acquired throughout childhood. This study assesses whether cognitive deficits occur as early as age 3 years and whether they are specific to persistently antisocial individuals. Verbal and spatial abilities were assessed at ages 3 and 11 years in 330 male and female children, while antisocial behavior was assessed at ages 8 and 17 years. Persistently antisocial individuals (N = 47) had spatial deficits in the absence of verbal deficits at age 3 years compared to comparisons (N = 133), and also spatial and verbal deficits at age 11 years. Age 3 spatial deficits were independent of social adversity, early hyperactivity, poor test motivation, poor test comprehension, and social discomfort during testing, and they were found in females as well as males. Findings suggest that early spatial deficits contribute to persistent antisocial behavior whereas verbal deficits are developmentally acquired. An early-starter model is proposed whereby early spatial impairments interfere with early bonding and attachment, reflect disrupted right hemisphere affect regulation and expression, and predispose to later persistent antisocial behavior.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether elements signifying relative insulin sensitivity (IS) were prospectively linked to accidents and suicides in 14,976 Helsinki Heart Study (HHS) ...screenees. The main outsome measure was hospitalizations and deaths from accidents and suicide attempts determined from Finnish registries, in aggregate; and separating out suicides (and attempts). Cox proportional hazards regression was used to determine adjusted risk ratios (RR) relating IS characteristics (extreme quartiles of high HDL-C, low BMI, and low SBP), individually and conjointly, to subsequent accidents or suicides (including attempts), adjusted for age, alcohol use, smoking, and non-HDL cholesterol. Each IS element was related to combined hospitalization and death, from accidents and from suicide attempts; increasing numbers of these characteristics were associated with increased risk, an effect that was more powerful and statistically significant for suicide. For accidents, the presence of one and two to three IS characteristics provided RRs (95% confidence intervals (CI)) of 1.08 (0.97–1.20) and 1.14 (0.98–1.31), respectively. For suicides including attempts, RRs (95%CI) were 1.61 (1.09–2.38) for one IS factor, and 1.88 (1.18–2.98) for two to three IS factors, while for completed suicides, the figures were 2.01 (1.19–3.38) and 2.24 (1.20–4.17), respectively. We speculate that insulin sensitivity may relate to these outcomes through low central serotonin activity.
Sex differences on the WISC-R in Mauritius Lynn, Richard; Raine, Adrian; Venables, Peter H. ...
Intelligence (Norwood),
09/2005, Letnik:
33, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Sex differences on the WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised) are examined in a sample of 1258 11 year olds in Mauritius. Boys obtained a significantly higher Full Scale IQ by 5.8 ...IQ points. Boys obtained a higher Performance IQ by 6.5 IQ points and a higher Verbal IQ by 1.0 IQ points. On the subtests, girls obtained a significantly higher mean on Coding while boys obtained significantly higher means on Similarities, Picture Completion, Block Design, Object Assembly and Mazes. There was no significant sex difference on Digit Span. Two methods were adopted for determining whether boys had an advantage on Spearman's
g. First, calculated from the first principal component of a principal components analysis, boys had an advantage on Spearman's
g of 6.15 IQ points. Second, using the method of entering the sex difference on each of the subtests as point-biserial correlations, including these in the full matrix of subtest correlations for factor analysis and examining the factor loading of sex on
g produced a correlation between sex and
g of .224, the equivalent of a sex difference of 6.9 IQ points. Thus the sex difference on the Full Scale IQ was found to be a good approximate measure of the difference in
g. The pattern of sex differences in Mauritius is compared with that in eight other countries and found to be generally similar, although the boys' advantage is greater in Mauritius than elsewhere. The variance in boys is slightly greater than in girls, but is only significant for Block Design.
Disturbances in the central nervous system originating during foetal life may increase the risk of schizophrenia.
To illuminate the hypothesis that prenatal exposure to analgesics may affect foetal ...neurodevelopment, leading to increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood.
Using data from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort and from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register, we studied the relationship between prenatal exposure to analgesics and the risk of schizophrenia. The effect of prenatal exposure was adjusted for parental history of schizophrenia, second-trimester viral infections, concomitant drug treatment during pregnancy, an index of pregnancy complications, parental social status and parental age.
In a risk set of 7999 individuals, 116 cases of schizophrenia were found (1.5%). Prenatal exposure to analgesics in the second trimester was associated with an elevated risk (adjusted odds ratio 4.75, 95% CI1.9-12.0). Independent of the covariates, the effect remained statistically significant.
Independent of a wide range of possible confounders, a significant association between second-trimester exposure to analgesics and increased risk of schizophrenia was observed.
Moldin et al. (1) have identified a cluster of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scales that discriminate adolescents at risk for schizophrenia from those not at risk. The present ...study examines how well Moldin's scales predict schizophrenic decompensation in a sample of 207 Danish adolescents at high genetic risk for schizophrenia. Subjects were assessed using a modified, 304‐item MMPI in 1962 (mean age=15.1 years) and diagnosed in 10‐year and 25‐year follow‐ups. Premorbidly. schizophrenic subjects (n = 31) scorcd higher than subjects with no mental illness on the frequency (F) and psychoticism (PSY) scales. When paranoid and non‐paranoid preschizophrenics were separated, three scales (F, Pz (paranoid schizophrenia) and PSY) significantly discriminated paranoid preschizophrenics. Discriminant function analyses confirmed these results. It is concluded that the MMPI may be useful for identifying schizophrenia premorbidly.
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