Nonaffective psychosis after prenatal exposure to rubella.
OBJECTIVE
The authors' goal was to investigate the suggestion of previous investigations that prenatal viral exposures might increase the later risk of psychotic disorders.


METHODS
They conducted a follow-up study in young adulthood of a birth cohort that was previously documented, by clinical examination and serological testing, to have in utero rubella exposure during the 1964 rubella epidemic. Data were also obtained from an unexposed birth cohort and from the Epidemiological Catchment Area survey. Young adult subjects were administered a standard psychiatric diagnostic interview. The authors compared the proportions of subjects with nonaffective psychosis in the exposed and unexposed cohorts.


RESULTS
The rubella-exposed subjects, most of whom were exposed in the first trimester, demonstrated a substantially greater risk for nonaffective psychosis than the subjects who were not exposed to rubella (relative risk=5.2).


CONCLUSIONS
There is an association between clinically and serologically diagnosed prenatal viral infection and nonaffective psychosis in adulthood.
Brown
A S
AS
New York State Psychiatric Institute, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA. asb11@columbia.edu
Cohen
P
P
Greenwald
S
S
Susser
E
E
D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003638:Deafness / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018811:Maternal Exposure; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012409:Rubella / Q000150:complications / Q000151:congenital / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012410:Rubella Syndrome, Congenital / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D012412:Rubella virus / Q000276:immunology; D012698:Serologic Tests
D000914:Antibodies, Viral