title: Early environmental exposures influence schizophrenia expression even in the presence of strong genetic predisposition.
abstract: There are few studies of environmental factors in familial forms of schizophrenia. We investigated whether childhood adversity or environmental factors were associated with schizophrenia in a familial sample where schizophrenia is associated with the NOSA1P gene. We found that a cumulative adversity index including childhood illness, family instability and cannabis use was significantly associated with narrow schizophrenia, independent of NOSA1P risk genotype, previously measured childhood trauma, covariates and familial clustering (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval)=1.55 (1.01, 2.38)). The results provide further support that early environmental exposures influence schizophrenia expression even in the presence of strong genetic predisposition.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. jhusted@uwaterloo.ca
authors.forename: Janice A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Husted
authors.forename: Rashid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Eva W C
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Linda M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Brzustowicz
authors.forename: Anne S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bassett
mesh_terms: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing / Q000235:genetics*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004777:Environment; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D048868:Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing; C488081:NOS1AP protein, human