Flu during pregancy linked to schizophrenia
Lee Bowman in Scripps Howard News Service reports:
A study published Monday finds that pregnant women who get the flu may increase the risk of having a baby who develops schizophrenia years later, underscoring government advice that pregnant women need to have be vaccinated against the flu.
The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is part of a larger study known as the Prenatal Determinants of Schizophrenia in which researchers are looking not only at prenatal infection, but also at chemical exposure, paternal age and a range of other factors in fetal development that might influence risk for the disease when the children become young adults.
Schizophrenia risk increased sevenfold when the fetus was exposed to flu virus in the first trimester of pregnancy and by three times if the exposure came within the first half of the pregnancy.
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