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Link Found Between Schizophrenia and Leaded Gas
11-Mar-04
Adult schizophrenics may have been exposed to lead while
still in the womb, according to Dr. Ezra Susser of Columbia
University.
Dr. Susser's recent study of blood samples collected from
pregnant American women in the 1960s, when most
automobile gasolines contained lead, finds that their
offspring were more than twice as likely to develop
schizophrenia in adulthood if the mothers were exposed
to high levels of lead in exhaust fumes.
The dataset used in the research came from the Childhood
Health and Development Study which ran between 1959 and 1966
in Oakland and enrolled almost 20,000 mothers.
He presented the work to the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington
State. "It's the first time that any environmental toxin has
been related to the later risk of schizophrenia," he told
the BBC. "It's a preliminary finding, but an intriguing one.
We think that people will now look at a variety of
environmental toxins which can disrupt brain development,
and see whether they are also related to the risk of
schizophrenia."
Dr Susser suspects that, as in fetal alcohol syndrome, the
developing brain is damaged when poisoned nerve cells are
unable to grow and establish connections with their
neighbors. The cells in effect "commit suicide."
The search is now on for other samples collected during the
era of leaded gasoline which could confirm the finding. If
it is confirmed, it would have huge implications for the
study of schizophrenia.
Dr Susser and colleagues' research is scheduled for
publication in the journal Environmental Health
Perspectives.
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