Schizophrenia: A neurodevelopmental perspective

Abstract

The role of aberrant neurodevelopment in the etiology of schizophrenia is reviewed in light of recent nueropathologic, neurochemical, and neuroimaging evidence of cerebral abnormalities in schizophrenic patients. There may exist some genetic defect in the control of brain development. Clinical epidemiologic surveys highlight the importance of obstetric amplications, and prenatal exposure to influenza epidemics in contributing to these abnormalities. It is suggested that such environmental hazards and aberrations in the control of early brain development produce the neuronal phenotype that manifests as schizophrenia with early age of onset of symptoms associated with soft neurologic signs and is more common in young males. © 1993, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. All rights reserved.