Abnormal Infant Neurodevelopment Predicts Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to detect infants who carry a schizophrenic genotype and study the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZSD) from birth. Introduction: In the 1940s, Bender described uneven maturation in childhood schizophrenics and in 1952 found this in the infant histories of 6 schizophrenic children. Methods: We tested a possible index for defective neural integration in infants termed "pandysmaturation" (PDM). This required retarded cranial growth plus retarded and erratic gross motor development on a single exam. Twelve offspring of hospitalized schizophrenic mothers and 12 infants in a "Well Baby Clinic," were examined 10 times between birth and 2 years of age. Psychiatric interviews and psychological testing were done at 10, 15, and 22 years of age, plus follow-up at 27–35 years of age. Results: Six infants had PDM at 2, 6, or 13 months of age. Five individuals have been blindly diagnosed (by KSK) as having lifetime SZSD; all 5 had PDM before 8 months. Chisquare one-tailed tests confirmed the predictions: (1) PDM was related to subsequent SZSD (X2 = 11.43; p < 0.0005); (2) schizophrenic mothers had more infants with PDM than nonschizophrenic mothers (X2 = 3.28; p < 0.05); and (3) schizophrenic mothers had more SZSD offspring than nonschizophrenic mothers (X2 = 6.39; p < 0.0125). Discussion: These first behavioral observations of aberrant neurodevelopment in pre- SZSD infants support the evidence of early neurodevelopmental disorder seen in studies of brain pathology in SZSD adults.