The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Surveys. 16. Breast-feeding and schizophrenia: preliminary results and hypotheses.
BACKGROUND
Schizophrenia may in some cases be a neurodevelopmental disorder. Breast milk is important to the developing brain. Might a lack of breast milk be an environmental risk factor in schizophrenia?


METHODS
Mothers of 45 schizophrenic patients in Nithsdale, southwest Scotland, completed a questionnaire about whether or not their offspring had been breast-fed.


RESULTS
The incidence of breast-feeding in patients was 29% and in sibs 38%. Most patients were born in the 1940s and 1950s. The incidence in patients born in these two decades, 33 and 26%, respectively, was significantly lower than in Scottish surveys in 1946 (81%) and 1958 (51%). Those patients who had not been breast-fed had more schizoid and schizotypal personality traits in childhood and a poorer social adjustment than their sibs; breast-fed patients did not differ from their sibs.


CONCLUSIONS
Fewer schizophrenic patients than normal were breast-fed. Lack of breast milk may be a risk factor in the neurodevelopmental form of schizophrenia.
McCreadie
R G
RG
Department of Clinical Research, Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries, Scotland.
D000328:Adult; D001722:Birth Order; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008423:Maternal Age; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000209:etiology*; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012923:Social Class; D013997:Time Factors