Paternal age as a risk factor for schizophrenia: How important is it?

Paternal age as a risk factor for schizophrenia: How important is it?
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
FULLER TORREY E. (1) ; BUKA Stephen (2) ; CANNON Tyrone D. (3) ; GOLDSTEIN Jill M. (4) ; SEIDMAN Larry J. (5 6) ; TIANLI LIU (2) ; HADLEY Trevor (7) ; ROSSO Isabelle M. (8) ; BEARDEN Carrie (3) ; YOLLCEN Robert H. (9) ;
Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)
(1) The Stanley Medical Research Institute, 8401 Connecticut Ave., Suite 200, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, ETATS-UNIS
(2) Department of Community Health, Brown University, 121 South Main Street, Providence, RI 02806, ETATS-UNIS
(3) Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, 1285 Franz Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, ETATS-UNIS
(4) Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine, Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women's Hospital, One Brigham Circle, Division of Women's Health, 3rd floor, 1620 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02120, ETATS-UNIS
(5) Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts Mental Health Center Public Psychiatry Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02115, ETATS-UNIS
(6) Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, ETATS-UNIS
(7) Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, 3535 Market Street, Philadelphia PA 19104, ETATS-UNIS
(8) McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02478, ETATS-UNIS
(9) The Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology, Johns Hopkins University, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Blalock 1105, Baltimore, MD 21287-4933, ETATS-UNIS

Résumé / Abstract
Advanced paternal age has been widely cited as a risk factor for schizophrenia among offspring and even claimed to account for one-quarter of all cases. We carried out a new study on 25,025 offspring from the Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP), including 168 diagnosed with psychosis and 88 with narrowly defined schizophrenia. We also conducted a meta-analysis of this and nine other studies for which comparable age-cohort data were available. The mean paternal age for the CPP cases was slightly, but not significantly, higher than the matched controls (p=0.28). Meta-analyses including these new results were conducted to determine the relative risk associated with alternative definitions of advanced paternal age (35, 45 or 55 years and older). These yielded pooled odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of 1.28 (1.10, 1.48),1.38 (0.95, 2.01) and 2.22 (1.46, 3.37), respectively. Thus, increased paternal age appears to be a risk factor for schizophrenia primarily among offspring of fathers ages 55 and over. In these 10 studies, such fathers accounted for only 0.6% of all births. Compared with other known risk factors for schizophrenia, advanced paternal age appears to be intermediate in magnitude. Advanced paternal age is also known to be a risk factor for some chromosomal and neoplastic diseases in the offspring where the cause is thought to be chromosomal aberrations and mutations of the aging germline. Similar mechanisms may account for the relationship between advanced paternal age and schizophrenia risk.
Revue / Journal Title
Schizophrenia research ISSN 0920-9964
Source / Source
2009, vol. 114, no1-3, pp. 1-5 [5 page(s) (article)] (3/4 p