Researchers claim that flu during pregnancy increases the chance of mental illness in the child
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A new study expands the knowledge that the children of women who had the flu during pregnancy are at a higher risk of developing schizophrenia. However, it must be qualified and said that the contribution of the flu to the development of schizophrenia is relatively low. Studies have shown that hereditary predisposition has a weight of about 50% in the development of schizophrenia, and it is quite rare in any case (in the USA, patients with schizophrenia are about XNUMX percent of the population).
The new study shows that women who had the flu in the first half of pregnancy have a three times higher chance of giving birth to children who will develop schizophrenia. 189 women participated in the study, of which 64 were women whose children had the disease. Schizophrenia is one of the most severe mental illnesses, and includes symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and confused thinking. It usually appears in adolescence or early adulthood.
Most of the previous studies were based on the memory of mothers of schizophrenic patients, regarding their exposure to the influenza virus during pregnancy. In the new study, blood samples taken decades earlier from pregnant women who participated in another study were tested. The researchers measured the levels of antibodies to the types of influenza viruses that were common in the years 1966-1959, while they were pregnant.
Women who had flu antibodies in their bodies in the first half of pregnancy were three times more likely to give birth to children who later developed schizophrenia. A seven times greater risk was obtained when the mother had the flu in the first trimester of pregnancy - the critical period in the development of the fetus. However, according to the study's lead author, Dr. Alan Brown, a psychiatrist at the New York Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University, these results are statistically less certain because there were fewer blood samples from the first trimester.
Brown hypothesized that the damage occurs only in a small number of genetically predisposed fetuses, since most pregnant women who get the flu give birth to healthy babies. According to him, more research is needed to confirm the link between the flu and schizophrenia.
According to information, the origin of the disease is a combination of genetic and environmental factors, including pregnancy complications. According to Brown, the study shows that up to 14% of cases may be related to the mother's exposure to the flu during pregnancy. However, the disease also results from a hereditary tendency whose distribution is very limited.
However, Dr. Robert Yulken, a scientist at Johns Hopkins University in the USA, who has studied for many years the role that viruses may play in the development of mental illnesses, said that the latest findings, along with previous evidence, "make it clear that catching the flu during pregnancy is a risk factor, Probably just one of several risk factors", for the development of schizophrenia.
Other studies conducted to date have found that other viruses, besides the flu, may be associated with schizophrenia, including measles and genital herpes during pregnancy. These viruses may adversely affect the brain development of the fetus.
Brown said he suspects that in the case of the flu, antibodies or proteins called "cytokines" - which are produced by the mother's immune system in response to infection - pass through the placenta and into the fetus and disrupt brain development.
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