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PAPERS: MARK WEISER, JIM VAN OS, ABRAHAM REICHENBERG, JONATHAN RABINOWITZ, DANIELLA NAHON, EFRAT KRAVITZ, GAD LUBIN, MOTI SHMUSHKEVITZ, HAIM Y. KNOBLER, SHLOMO NOY, and MICHAEL DAVIDSON Social and cognitive functioning, urbanicity and risk for schizophrenia The British Journal of Psychiatry 2007; 191: 320-324 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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This could be due to testosterone.

James M. Howard   (4 October 2007)

This could be due to testosterone. 4 October 2007
James M. Howard, Biologist independent Send letter to journal: Re: This could be due to testosterone. jmhoward{at}anthropogeny.com James M. Howard	It is my hypothesis that schizophrenia results from reduced fetal brain growth and development due to low maternal DHEA. This underdevelopment is exposed later in life by hormones that interfere with DHEA availability, that is, cortisol and testosterone, along with the natural decline of DHEA that begins around age twenty. Therefore, schizophrenia often occurs following a stressful event (cortisol) in the late teens or early twenties (testosterone and loss of DHEA) or later in life as DHEA reaches very low levels. This loss of DHEA and antagonism by cortisol and testosterone reduce both function and tissue maintenance. Schizophrenics are characterized by low DHEA. A report comparing rural areas and a large city found that testosterone is higher in the large city (Folia Histochem Cytobiol. 2001;39 Suppl 2:38-9). I suggest the findings of Weiser, et al., may be explained by increased testosterone in urban areas, perhaps accentuated by increased population density within an urban area.