Titre
Paternal age and sporadic schizophrenia : evidence for de novo mutations
Type
article
Institution
Externe
Périodique
Auteur(s)
Malaspina, D.
Auteure/Auteur
Corcoran, C.
Auteure/Auteur
Fahim, C.
Auteure/Auteur
Berman, A.
Auteure/Auteur
Harkavy-Friedman, J.
Auteure/Auteur
Yale, S.
Auteure/Auteur
Goetz, D.
Auteure/Auteur
Goetz, R.
Auteure/Auteur
Harlap, S.
Auteure/Auteur
Gorman, J.
Auteure/Auteur
Liens vers les personnes
ISSN
0148-7299
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2002
Volume
114
Numéro
3
Première page
299
Dernière page/numéro d’article
303
Langue
anglais
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S. - Publication Status: ppublish
Résumé
Schizophrenia is an etiologically heterogeneous syndrome. It has a strong genetic component and exists in clinically indistinguishable familial and nonfamilial (sporadic) forms. A significant role for de novo genetic mutations in genetic schizophrenia vulnerability is suggested by a strong monotonic increase in schizophrenia risk with advancing paternal age. However, an alternative explanation for the paternal age effect in schizophrenia is that childbearing is delayed in fathers who themselves have genetic schizophrenia vulnerability. In this study, we compared paternal birth ages between patient groups with familial (n = 35) and sporadic (n = 68) patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia from an inpatient schizophrenia research unit. If later age of fathering children is related to having some genetic schizophrenia vulnerability, then paternal birth age should be later in familial schizophrenia cases than in sporadic cases, and any association of father's age and schizophrenia risk in offspring would be a spurious finding, unrelated to etiology. However, if de novo mutations cause sporadic schizophrenia, then patients without a family history of schizophrenia would have older fathers than familial patients. We found that patients without a family history of schizophrenia had significantly older fathers (4.7 years) than familial patients; so later childbirth was not attributable to parental psychiatric illness. These findings support the hypothesis that de novo mutations contribute to the risk for sporadic schizophrenia.
PID Serval
serval:BIB_B05833331EA2
PMID
Date de création
2009-06-24T12:43:13.749Z
Date de création dans IRIS
2025-05-21T00:14:58Z