The British Journal of Psychiatry 130: 495-505 (1977)
© 1977 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Perinatal complications in offspring of psychotic parents

GM Mirdal, D Rosenthal, PH Wender and F Schulsinger

The birth records of 78 subjects born to psychotic parents and 72 subjects born to normal parents were studied. No significant differences in the rates of pregnancy and birth complications (PBCs) were found between the offspring of psychotic parents and normal control parents. There were no differences between offspring born to psychotic mothers compared to psychotic fathers. Neither the onset of the parent's illness, nor the mother's age at delivery, nor the sex of the offspring seemed to influence the rate of PBCs. The offspring of chronic schizophrenic mothers and manic-depressive fathers had lower PBC rates than the offspring of parents of other diagnostic categories. The parents of these two groups, which were of a limited size, did not differ on any variable of significance, excepting the time of their first psychiatric hospital admission.