Schizophrenia : perspective from Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a major and debilitating mental disorder that afflicts about 1% of the population worldwide. Despite intensive, multifaceted research, its exact etiology remains quite elusive. One of the prevailing hypotheses is the “neurodevelopmental abnormality” theory, which proposes that some schizophrenics suffer from subtle neurodevelopmental insults during fetal development, for instance, obstetric complications or maternal virus infections, resulting in biological predisposition to schizophrenia that manifest in adolescence or later. Supporting this theory is convincing epidemiological data showing that when pregnant mothers experienced malnutrition or famine (e. g. the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1994-1945 and the Chinese famine of 1959-1961), the risk of schizophrenia in their children increased by two fold. These facts could be considered in the context of DOHaD. The concept of DOHaD is well referenced in the understanding of common adult diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension, but not so in the field of mental disorders. We will attempt to show how the mechanism of DOHaD could contribute at least in part to schizophrenia pathogenesis and how it can be used to develop preventive interventions for schizophrenia.