Childhood infections and schizophrenia: the impact of parental SES and mental illness, and childhood adversities

Publication date: Available online 24 June 2019Source: Brain, Behavior, and ImmunityAuthor(s): Jean-Christophe Debost, Janne Tidselbak Larsen, Trine Munk-Olsen, Preben Bo Mortensen, Esben Agerbo, Liselotte Vogdrup PetersenAbstractChildhood infection has been proposed as an important etiologic factor for schizophrenia. However, it is unclear to what extent the association between childhood infection and schizophrenia is confounded by parental socioeconomic status and mental illness, and childhood adversity, and whether the association is explained by familial liability for infections. We used a historical, population-based cohort design, selecting all singletons born in Denmark between 1981 and 1998 (n = 882,813). We identified exposure to infection as having been hospitalized with an infection in the Danish national registers. Data from a range of population-based registers were used to construct a childhood adversity index. The index included the following adversities: family disruption, parental incarceration, parental chronic somatic disease, death of a parent, parent permanently outside of workforce, childhood abuse and placement in out-of-home care. We also assessed parental socioeconomic status and mental illness. Multiple admissions with infections during childhood increased the risk of schizophrenia with an Incidence Rate Ratio (IRR) of 1.28 (95% CI: 1.19-1.38) for 1 infection to an IRR of 1.43 (95% CI: 1.30-1.58) for 2-3 infections and an IRR of 1.95 (95% CI: 1.66–...
Source: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity - Category: Neurology Source Type: research