Small head circumference at birth in schizophrenia.

The growing evidence for neurodevelopmental basis to schizophrenia has focused attention on the prenatal development of individuals who later develop the illness. Several previous studies have shown reduced birth weight (BW) in schizophrenics and one recently reported smaller birth head circumference (BHC). The current study compared 67 DSM-III-R schizophrenics and a general population group of 1640, using information obtained from contemporaneous birth records. When gestational age and gender were controlled for, no significant difference was found in BW between the schizophrenics and the comparison population. However, the preschizophrenics showed significantly smaller BHC for gestational age, suggestive of slower fetal brain growth.