Older Fathers, more mental illness?

Mothers and Fathers Ages of Patients with Anorexia were much Older

http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/reprint/36/1/18.pdf

If all babies had fathers less than 30, the paper suggests the incidence of schizophrenia would reduce by at least 15%

Like the discovery of the connection between mothers over 35 and Down Syndrome Swedish Research that tracked over 700,000 young people published in 2004.



There is a "strong association" between men who become fathers after the age of 50 and of schizophrenia in their children, a study has found.

Swedish research that tracked over 700,000 young people found 15 per cent of schizophrenia cases could be attributed to older fathers. Researchers believe the link may be due to sperm mutations, which accumulate as men get older.

Compared with men who become fathers between 21 and 24, those who father children at the age of 50 or older have four to five times the chance of their offspring developing schizophrenia. The link was stronger if there was no family history of the disorder.

The link between schizophrenia and older paternity had been made before, but this was the first large study to look at a range of factors that could confound the results, said Professor John McGrath, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research.

"If all babies had fathers less than 30, the paper suggests, the incidence of schizophrenia would reduce by 15 per cent," he said.

In 1981 Geneticist JM Friedman said it was Good Public Health Policy That Both Men and Women Complete Their Family before age 40

"Thus, it is good public health policy to recommend that both men and women complete their family before age 40, if possible.

JM Friedman in an article called Genetic disease in the offspring of older fathers. Obstetrics & Gynecology 1981:57 745-749


Genetic disease in the offspring of older fathers
JM Friedman


Autosomal dominant genetic diseases may result from the transmission of a trait by a carrier parent or from gene mutation in one of the gametes from which the child develops. The mean age of fathers of affected persons has been found to be greater than expected for several autosomal dominant diseases due to new mutations. To assess the clinical importance of this observation, the relative and absolute frequencies of offspring with autosomal dominant diseases due to mutation in the sperm from fathers of various ages have been calculated. The relative frequency of new autosomal dominant mutations in children increases logarithmically with paternal age during the usual years of fatherhood. The absolute frequency of autosomal dominant disease due to new mutations among the offspring of fathers who are 40 years of age or older is estimated to be at least 0.3 to 0.5%. This risk is many times greater than that for children of young fathers and is similar in magnitude to the risk of Down syndrome among the offspring of 35- to 40-year-old mothers. Thus, it is good public health policy to recommend that both men and women complete their family a before age 40, if possible