title: Unwantedness of a pregnancy and schizophrenia in the child.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Maternal stress during pregnancy has been suggested as a risk factor for schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that being the child of an unwanted pregnancy would be associated with later schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected prospectively in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort of 11 017 individuals. In the sixth or seventh month of pregnancy mothers were asked whether the pregnancy was wanted, mistimed but wanted or unwanted. Schizophrenia diagnoses in the cohort members were obtained from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-six cases of DSM-III-R schizophrenia were identified in the whole cohort between the ages of 16 and 28 years; a cumulative incidence of 0.7%, compared with 1.5% for those born from unwanted pregnancies. The risk of later schizophrenia among unwanted children was raised compared with wanted or mistimed children, even after adjustment for confounding by sociodemographic, pregnancy and perinatal variables (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2-4.8).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that unwantedness may operate either directly as a psychosocial stress during development making children more liable to schizophrenia, or it may be a marker for behaviours associated with risk in either the mother or the child.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Science and General Practice, University of Oulu, Finland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Myhrman
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rantakallio
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isohanni
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Partanen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011275:Pregnancy, Unwanted / Q000523:psychology*; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*