The association between perinatal events and the development of violent and property crime was studied. Results showed that delivery events predicted adult violent offending, especially in high-risk ...and recidivistically violent offenders.
This study examined whether criminals with organic brain syndrome could be divided into two distinct types. The authors proposed that early starters (onset of criminal activity by age 18) would ...display a persistent, long-lasting pattern of deviance that was largely independent of their brain disorder, whereas late starters (onset at age 19 or after) would exhibit deviant behaviors that began late in life and were more directly related to their brain disorder.
Subjects were 1,130 male criminal offenders drawn from a birth cohort of all individuals born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1947, in Denmark. The main study group included all men with both a history of criminal arrest and a hospitalization for organic brain syndrome (N=565). In addition, for a subset of analyses, the authors examined a randomly selected, same-size comparison group of men with a history of criminal arrest who were not hospitalized for organic brain syndrome. Data were available on all arrests and all psychiatric hospitalizations for individuals in this cohort through the age of 44.
Among those with organic brain syndrome, early starters were significantly more likely than late starters to 1) be arrested before the onset of organic brain syndrome, 2) show a higher rate of offending before but not after the onset of organic brain syndrome, 3) be both recidivists and violent recidivists, and 4) have a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder.
Male criminals with organic brain syndrome can be meaningfully divided into two distinct types on the basis of age at first arrest. Early starters show a more global, persistent, and stable pattern of offending than late starters. These results have implications for treatment and risk assessment.
Diuretics prescribed after the first trimester for treatment of hypertension in pregnant women may interfere with normal plasma volume expansion and cause volume depletion. The authors hypothesized ...that prenatal exposure to diuretics and maternal hypertension might disrupt fetal neurodevelopment and increase the risk of schizophrenia in offspring.
Using data from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort of individuals born between 1959 and 1961, the authors studied the relationship of maternal hypertension and diuretic treatment during pregnancy with the risk of schizophrenia (ICD-8 code 295) in the offspring. Prenatal medical information was linked to the Danish National Psychiatric Register. The effects of maternal hypertension and diuretic treatment were adjusted for the maternal history of schizophrenia, social status of the family breadwinner, mother's age, and concomitant drug treatment during pregnancy.
In a risk set of 7,866 individuals, 84 cases of schizophrenia were found (1.1% prevalence). Logistic multiple regression analysis identified the following independent risk factors: maternal hypertension (odds ratio=1.69 95% CI=1.02-2.80), diuretic treatment in the third trimester (odds ratio=2.55 95% CI=1.21-5.37), and maternal schizophrenia (odds ratio=11.12 95% CI=4.60-29.91). Prenatal exposure to both hypertension and diuretic treatment in the third trimester conferred a 4.01-fold (95% CI=1.41-11.40) elevated risk.
Children of mothers with hypertension in pregnancy plus diuretic treatment in the third trimester were at significantly increased risk of developing schizophrenia. In pregnancies complicated by hypertension, diuretics may interfere with aspects of fetal neurodevelopment and thus increase the vulnerability of offspring to the development of schizophrenia later in life.
The current study examines teacher ratings as a tool for identifying students at risk of developing psychosis. Follow-up and follow-back studies have shown that teachers are capable of identifying ...individuals who later develop serious mental illness.
We examine the long-term outcomes for individuals at genetic risk who were identified as showing markedly deviant behaviour and those identified who did not show markedly deviant behaviour.
Teachers were able to correctly anticipate 35% of students who developed schizophrenia. Furthermore, those identified as showing markedly deviant behaviour had poorer clinical and psychiatric outcomes 10 and 25 years later than those identified as not behaving with marked deviance. Their ratings also differentiated, within the group of people with schizophrenia, which individuals would show evidence of poorer functioning 25 years later. These results were replicated in a group of students not at genetic risk of schizophrenia. Within this low-risk group, teachers were able to predict which students would develop psychotic disorders.
Teacher ratings were particularly useful in predicting clinical and psychiatric outcomes 10 and 25 years later. The applicability of these findings in early intervention and treatment research is discussed.
Objective: This prospective high‐risk study examined the influence of father's alcoholism and other archival‐generated measures on premature death.
Method: Sons of alcoholic fathers (n = 223) and ...sons of non‐alcoholic fathers (n = 106) have been studied from birth to age 40. Archival predictors of premature death included father's alcoholism, childhood developmental data, and diagnostic information obtained from the Psychiatric Register and alcoholism clinics.
Results: By age 40, 21 of the 329 subjects had died (6.4%), a rate that is more than two times greater than expected. Sons of alcoholic fathers were not more likely to die by age 40. Premature death was associated with physical immaturity at 1‐year of age and psychiatric/alcoholism treatment. No significant interactions were found between risk and archival measures.
Conclusion: Genetic vulnerability did not independently predict death at age 40. Death was associated with developmental immaturities and treatment for a psychiatric and/or substance abuse problem.
No study has yet reported specifically on the early behavior of individuals later diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). This study examines prospectively collected teacher reports on ...school behavior as a means of assessing childhood precursors of SPD. Thirty-six DSM-III-R diagnosed schizotypal subjects were compared with four other groups: 31 schizophrenia patients, 37 diagnosed as nonpsychotic mentally ill, 68 who were not mentally ill but had mothers with schizophrenia, and 60 who were not mentally ill and had normal parents. These individuals were compared on a teachers' school report questionnaire obtained when the subjects averaged 15.1 years old. Those who later developed SPD were found to be more passive and unengaged and more hypersensitive to criticisms compared with the nonschizophrenia groups. Similar results were found when males and females were examined separately, except that males who developed SPD were found to be less disruptive and hyperexcitable compared with males with schizophrenia; females with SPD did not differ from females with schizophrenia. A receiver operating characteristic analysis found these factors to predict 73.5 percent of future SPDs; the ability of these factors to predict future SPDs is comparable for males and females. These findings suggest that preschizotypal traits may be identified in late childhood or adolescence.
This epidemiological investigation was designed to examine the relationships between each of the major mental disorders and criminal violence. Specifically, we assessed whether a significant ...relationship exists between violence and hospitalization for a major mental disorder, and whether this relationship differs for schizophrenia, affective psychoses, and organic brain syndromes.
Subjects were drawn from a birth cohort of all individuals born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1947, in Denmark (N = 358 180). Because of the existence of accurate and complete national registers, data were available on all arrests for violence and all hospitalizations for mental illness that occurred for individuals in this cohort through the age of 44 years.
There was a significant positive relationship between the major mental disorders that led to hospitalization and criminal violence (odds ratios 2.0-8.8 for men and 3.9-23.2 for women). Persons hospitalized for a major mental disorder were responsible for a disproportionate percentage of violence committed by the members of the birth cohort. Men with organic psychoses and both men and women with schizophrenia were significantly more likely to be arrested for criminal violence than were persons who had never been hospitalized, even when controlling for demographic factors, substance abuse, and personality disorders.
Individuals hospitalized for schizophrenia and men hospitalized with organic psychosis have higher rates of arrests for violence than those never hospitalized. This relationship cannot be fully explained by demographic factors or comorbid substance abuse.
We report a 42-year-old man who, for 8 months, had intermittent motor abnormalities and mild difficulty falling asleep. A diagnosis of fatal familial insomnia (FFI) became evident over the next 6 ...months when he developed progressive insomnia, myoclonus, sympathetic hyperactivity, and dementia. The amyloid or prion protein (PrP) genotype showed features typically seen in FFI, with a 178Asn mutation and a 129Met polymorphism. There was also a deletion of one octapeptide repeat, suggesting that the association of 178Asn mutation with the 129Met polymorphism is not due to "founder effect." Western immunoblot showed a trace of protease-resistant PrP in the thalamus--which had the most significant neuronal loss and gliosis--a moderate amount of PrP in the fronto-temporal area, and no detectable protein elsewhere in the brain. Endocrine studies showed that a circadian modulation of hormonal levels could be maintained despite a near-total absence of sleep. Administration of gamma-hydroxybutyrate induced a remarkable increase in slow-wave sleep.
Sex differences on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts are examined in a sample of approximately 1400 3 year olds in Mauritius. Girls obtained a significantly higher Full Scale IQ by .11
d, the ...equivalent of 1.65 conventional IQ points, and a significantly higher performance IQ by 1.95 IQ points. The results confirm previous studies that have found that among preschool children girls have slightly but significantly higher IQs than boys. There was no sex difference in variance, contrary to the frequent assertion that variance is greater in males than in females.
The current project compared the characteristics of four groups of men from a Danish birth cohort: (a) those at high risk for serious criminal involvement (with severely criminal fathers) who ...nevertheless succeeded in avoiding criminal behavior; (b) those at high risk who evidenced serious criminal behavior; (c) those at low risk (with noncriminal fathers) who did not evidence criminal behavior; and (d) those at low risk who nevertheless evidenced serious criminal behavior. We examined the possible role of high IQ (as tested by an abbreviated version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) in protecting high-risk men from criminal involvement. As hypothesized, the first group evidenced a mean IQ score that was significantly higher than that of the other risk groups. The results are interpreted in terms of the reinforcing effect of success in the school system.
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