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Maternal Diuretics In Pregnancy May Be Linked To Schizophrenia In Offspring
A DGReview of :"Do hypertension and diuretic treatment in pregnancy increase the risk of schizophrenia in offspring?"
American Journal of Psychiatry
03/14/2003
By Robert Short
Children whose mothers were treated with diuretics for hypertension during pregnancy, are at significantly increased risk of developing schizophrenia.
This was the conclusion of Dr HJ Sorensen and colleagues from Denmark, who based their conclusions on data from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort of people born between 1959 and 1961. The data were linked to the Danish National Psychiatric Register.
The researchers studied specifically the relationship between maternal hypertension and diuretic treatment during pregnancy, and the risk of schizophrenia (ICD-8 code 295).
A risk set of 7,866 individuals produced 84 cases of schizophrenia (1.1% prevalence).
Several independent risk factors were identified by logistic multiple regression analysis: maternal hypertension (odds ratio 1.69), diuretic treatment in the third trimester (odds ratio 2.55), and maternal schizophrenia (odds ratio 11.12).
" Prenatal exposure to both hypertension and diuretic treatment in the third trimester conferred a 4.01-fold elevated risk," the researchers noted.
They speculate that the diuretics may interfere with foetal neurodevelopment and so increase the vulnerability of offspring to the development of schizophrenia later in life.
Am J Psychiatry 2003;160:3:464-8.
"Do hypertension and diuretic treatment in pregnancy increase the risk of schizophrenia in offspring?"
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