Health and development in the first 4 years of life in offspring of women with schizophrenia and affective psychoses: Well-Baby Clinic information.

The investigation of genetic high-risk (HR) groups provides the opportunity to study diathesis characteristics associated with schizophrenia (Sc) and affective psychoses. High-risk offspring of women with a history of schizophrenia, affective and other psychoses (n = 84), as well as normal-risk control (NC) offspring (n = 100), were studied from 0 to 4 years of age, using prospectively recorded information from Well-Baby Clinic (WBC) records. Blind assessment of an average of 25 contacts per subject yielded data concerning early life developmental, physical and behavioral characteristics associated with psychosis risk. As compared with controls, offspring of women with schizophrenia showed significantly increased rates of delayed walking, visual dysfunction, language skill disorders, enuresis, disturbed behavior (especially poor social competence), and multiple accumulated risk characteristics. Significant Sc-risk characteristics did not include impaired hearing, minor malformations, biological dysfunctions, or physical illness leading to treatment. Offspring of mothers with affective psychosis (Aff) showed only a significantly increased rate of delayed walking, with no significantly increased total aggregation of risk characteristics, compared with controls. The results suggest a limited overlap in the diathesis characteristics associated with risk for Sc vs. Aff psychosis. The importance of these early risk characteristics for the later development of psychopathology is being investigated in this sample.