Obstetric complications and schizophrenia: A case control study based on standardised obstetric records

A study covering all psychiatric hospital admissions and all hospital deliveries in Scotland since 1971. It was possible to identify obstetric records of people born 1971-4 who were subsequently admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and then to compare their standardised obstetric records with those of matched controls. 115 schizophrenic / control pairs were compared. The former showed highly significant excess of complications of both pregnancy and delivery. In particular there was a significant excess of pre-eclampsia (10 versus 2) and of infants detained in hospital for neonatal care (18 versus 6).