Associations Between Maternal Prenatal C-Reactive Protein and Risk Factors for Psychosis in Adolescent Offspring: Findings From the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986.
View / Open Files
Authors
Ramsay, Hugh
Surcel, Heljä-Marja
Björnholm, Lassi
Kerkelä, Martta
Veijola, Juha
Publication Date
2020-11-17Journal Title
Schizophrenia bulletin
ISSN
1787-9965
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Physical Medium
Print-Electronic
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Ramsay, H., Surcel, H., Björnholm, L., Kerkelä, M., Khandaker, G., & Veijola, J. (2020). Associations Between Maternal Prenatal C-Reactive Protein and Risk Factors for Psychosis in Adolescent Offspring: Findings From the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986.. Schizophrenia bulletin https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa152
Abstract
Prenatal infection is associated with brain structural and functional abnormalities, and may increase risk for psychosis through a direct effect on neurodevelopment. Various infections may exert their effect through a pro-inflammatory immune response but studies of prenatal maternal inflammatory markers and offspring neurodevelopment are scarce. Using the longitudinal Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 study, we examined the associations of maternal prenatal C-reactive protein (CRP) levels with psychosis risk factors in adolescent offspring. CRP was measured in maternal sera collected in pregnancy. In offspring, school performance was measured at age 7 years, while school performance, psychotic experiences and cannabis use were measured at age 16 years. We tested associations of CRP with offspring measures using regression analysis controlling for offspring sex, maternal education level, and prenatal maternal body mass index, smoking and alcohol use in pregnancy, place of birth, maternal psychiatric admission, paternal psychiatric admission, mothers age at birth and gestational week of CRP sample. We also tested if adolescent cannabis use mediated the associations between maternal CRP and offspring outcomes. Controlling for covariates, maternal CRP was associated with academic performance at age 16 years (beta=0.062, 95% CI=0.036-0.088), but not with possible psychotic experiences at 16 years (odds ratio=1.09, 95% CI=0.96-1.24). Maternal CRP was also associated with adolescent cannabis use (odds ratio=1.24, 95% CI=1.07-1.43). These findings suggest that prenatal inflammation may influence later mental illness risk by affecting neurodevelopment, and also indirectly by increasing risk of exposure to cannabis.
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (201486/Z/16/Z)
MRC (MC_PC_17213)
Medical Research Council (MR/S037675/1)
Embargo Lift Date
2021-11-17
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa152
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/310709
Rights
All rights reserved