Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:10:40.741Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Comparing cohort incidence of schizophrenia with that of bipolar disorder and affective psychosis in individuals born in Stockholm County 1955–1967

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2015

J. Söderlund*
Affiliation:
Public Health Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
S. Wicks
Affiliation:
Public Health Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
L. Jörgensen
Affiliation:
Public Health Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
C. Dalman
Affiliation:
Public Health Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
*
* Address for correspondence: J. Söderlund, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, M76, Psykiatri SV, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, 14186 Stockholm, Sweden. (Email: johan.soderlund@ki.se)

Abstract

Background.

Perinatal factors are associated with increased risk for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Improvements in obstetric and maternal healthcare and positive socioeconomic development in Sweden from the 1950s onwards could be expected to affect incidence estimates. However, commonly incidence rates are calculated during a specific year, i.e. time of diagnosis, which mirrors proximal precipitating risk factors. To examine whether incidence estimates are compatible with the hypothesis of an impact of perinatal exposures on the risk of the different disorders we here instead calculate incidence rates for consecutive birth cohorts born between 1955 and 1967. We hypothesized that schizophrenia incidence would be more affected compared to bipolar disorder and other affective psychoses since most perinatal risk factors are more pronounced in schizophrenia aetiology.

Method.

Birth cohorts of individuals born in Sweden and resident in Stockholm (N = 2 16 322), were followed in The National Patient Register regarding incident inpatient episodes Incident cases/10 000 person-years and birth cohort were calculated. Linear regression was used to estimate change in incidence rate.

Results.

We found stable birth cohort-based incidence estimates for bipolar disorder and other affective psychoses, but a continuous reduction in incidence estimates for schizophrenia as well as other non-affective psychoses in subsequent birth cohorts from 1955 to 1967.

Conclusions.

The consecutive birth cohort-based incidence estimates unveiled patterns that are compatible with the hypothesis of an impact of early life exposures decreasing over time, in the aetiology of schizophrenia, whereas this pattern is less apparent in affective psychoses..

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel, KM, Heuvelman, HP, Jörgensen, L, Magnusson, C, Wicks, S, Susser, E, Hallkvist, J, Dalman, C (2014). Severe bereavement stress during the prenatal and childhood periods and risk of psychosis in later life: population based cohort study. British Medical Journal 348, f7679.Google Scholar
Bray, I, Waraich, P, Jones, W, Slater, S, Goldner, EM, Somers, J (2006). Increase in schizophrenia incidence rates: findings in a Canadian cohort born 1975–1985. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 41, 611618.Google Scholar
Brown, AS (2011). The environment and susceptibility to schizophrenia. Progress in Neurobiology 93, 2358.Google Scholar
Brown, AS, Susser, ES, Lin, SP, Neugebauer, R, Gorman, JM (1995). Increased risk of affective disorders in males after second trimester prenatal exposure to the Dutch hunger winter of 1944–45. British Journal of Psychiatry 166, 601605.Google Scholar
Buka, SL, Cannon, TD, Torrey, EF, Yolken RH. Collaborative Study Group on the Perinatal Origins of Severe Psychiatric Disorders (2008). Maternal exposure to herpes simplex virus and risk of psychosis among adult offspring. Biological Psychiatry 63, 809815.Google Scholar
Cannon, TD, van Erp, TG, Rosso, IM, Huttunen, M, Lönnqvist, J, Pirkola, T, Salonen, O, Valanne, L, Poutanen, VP, Standertskjöld-Nordenstam, CG (2002). Fetal hypoxia and structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenic patients, their siblings, and controls. Archives of General Psychiatry 59, 3541.Google Scholar
Craddock, N, Sklar, P (2013). Genetics of bipolar disorder. Lancet 381, 16541662.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
de Alarcon, J, Seagroatt, V, Sellar, C, Goldacre, M (1993). Population-based trends in treatment rates in psychiatry in Oxfordshire, 1975–1986. Journal of Public Health Medicine 15, 93102.Google Scholar
Edouard, L (1985). The epidemiology of perinatal mortality. World Health Statistics Quarterly 38, 289301.Google Scholar
Geddes, JR, Lawrie, SM (1995). Obstetric complications and schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry 167, 786793.Google Scholar
Geoffroy, PA, Etain, B, Scott, J, Henry, C, Jamain, S, Leboyer, M, Bellivier, F (2013). Reconsideration of bipolar disorder as a developmental disorder: importance of the time of onset. Journal of Physiology Paris 107, 278285.Google ScholarPubMed
Harrison, G, Cooper, JE, Gancarczyk, R (1991). Changes in the administrative incidence of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 159, 811816.Google Scholar
Helgason, T (1979). Epidemiological investigations concerning affective disorders. In Origin, Prevention and Treatment of Affective Disorders (ed. Schou, M. and Stromgren, E.), pp. 241255. Academic Press: London.Google Scholar
Hjern, A, Wicks, S, Dalman, C (2004). Social adversity contributes to high morbidity in psychoses in immigrants – a national cohort study in two generations of Swedish residents. Psychological Mededicine 34, 10251033.Google Scholar
Huttunen, MO, Niskanen, P (1978). Prenatal loss of father and psychiatric disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 429431.Google Scholar
Jörgensen, L, Ahlbom, A, Allebeck, P, Dalman, C (2010). The Stockholm non-affective psychoses study (SNAPS): the importance of including out-patient data in incidence studies. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 121, 389392.Google Scholar
Kendell, RE, Malcolm, DE, Adams, W (1993). The problem of detecting changes in the incidence of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 162, 212218.Google Scholar
Khashan, AS, Abel, KM, McNamee, R, Pedersen, MG, Webb, RT, Baker, PN, Kenny, LC, Mortensen, PB (2008). Higher risk of offspring schizophrenia following antenatal maternal exposure to severe adverse life events. Archives of General Psychiatry 65, 146152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinney, DK, Yurgelun-Todd, DA, Tohen, M, Tramer, S (1998). Pre- and perinatal complications and risk for bipolar disorder: a retrospective study. Journal of Affective Disorders 50, 117124.Google Scholar
Kirkbride, JB, Croudace, T, Brewin, J, Donoghue, K, Mason, P, Glazebrook, C, Medley, I, Harrison, G, Cooper, JE, Doody, GA, Jones, PB (2009). Is the incidence of psychotic disorder in decline? Epidemiological evidence from two decades of research. International Journal of Epidemiology 38, 12551264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirkbride, JB, Errazuriz, A, Croudace, TJ, Morgan, C, Jackson, D, Boydell, J, Murray, RM, Jones, PB (2012). Incidence of schizophrenia and other psychoses in England, 1950–2009: a systematic review and meta-analyses. PLoS ONE 7, e31660.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunugi, H, Nanko, S, Murray, RM (2001). Obstetric complications and schizophrenia: prenatal underdevelopment and subsequent neurodevelopmental impairment. British Journal of Psychiatry (Suppl.) 40, 2529.Google Scholar
Köhler, L (1991). Infant mortality: the Swedish experience. Annual Review of Public Health 12, 177193.Google Scholar
Mitchell, PB (2012). Bipolar disorder: the shift to overdiagnosis. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 57, 659665.Google Scholar
Munk-Jörgensen, P (1995). Decreasing rates of incident schizophrenia cases in psychiatric service: a review of the literature. European Psychiatry 10, 129141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, RM, Lewis, SW (1987). Is schizophrenia a neurodevelopmental disorder? British Medical Journal 295, 681682.Google Scholar
Nosarti, C, Reichenberg, A, Murray, RM, Cnattingius, S, Lambe, MP, Yin, L, MacCabe, J, Rifkin, L, Hultman, CM (2012). Preterm birth and psychiatric disorders in young adult life. Archives of General Psychiatry 69, E1E8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oldehinkel, AJ, Giel, R (1995). Time trends in the care-based incidence of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 167, 777782.Google Scholar
Schoeyen, HK, Vaaler, AE, Auestad, BH, Malt, UF, Melle, I, Andreassen, OA, Morken, G (2011). Despite clinical differences, bipolar disorder patients from acute wards and outpatient clinics have similar educational and disability levels compared to the general population. Journal of Affective Disorders 132, 209215.Google Scholar
Scott, J, McNeill, Y, Cavanagh, J, Cannon, M, Murray, R (2006). Exposure to obstetric complications and subsequent development of bipolar disorder: systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry 189, 311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sellgren, C, Landén, M, Lichtenstein, P, Hultman, CM, Långström, N (2011). Validity of bipolar disorder hospital discharge diagnoses: file review and multiple register linkage in Sweden. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 124, 447453.Google Scholar
St Clair, D, Xu, M, Wang, P, Yu, Y, Fang, Y, Zhang, F, Zheng, X, Gu, N, Feng, G, Sham, P, He, L (2005). Rates of adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to the Chinese famine of 1959–1961. Journal of the American Medical Association 294, 557562.Google Scholar
Stenbäck, A, Achté, KA (1966). Hospital first admissions and social class. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 42, 113125.Google Scholar
Susser, ES, Lin, SP (1992). Schizophrenia after prenatal exposure to the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944–1945. Archives of General Psychiatry 49, 983988.Google Scholar
Suvisaari, JM, Haukka, JK, Tanskanen, AJ, Lönnqvist, JK (1999). Decline in the incidence of schizophrenia in Finnish cohorts born from 1954 to 1965. Archives of General Psychiatry 56, 733740.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sørensen, HJ, Mortensen, EL, Reinisch, JM, Mednick, SA (2009). Association between prenatal exposure to bacterial infection and risk of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletine 35, 631637.Google Scholar
Takei, N, Lewis, G, Sham, PC, Murray, RM (1996). Age-period-cohort analysis of the incidence of schizophrenia in Scotland. Psychological Medicine 26, 963973.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tsuchiya, KJ, Munk-Jørgensen, P (2002). First-admission rates of schizophrenia in Denmark, 1980–1997: have they been increasing? Schizophrenia Research 54, 187191.Google Scholar
van der Werf, M, Hanssen, M, Köhler, S, Verkaaik, M, Verhey, FR; RISE Investigators, van Winkel, R, van Os, J, Allardyce, J (2014). Systematic review and collaborative recalculation of 1 33 693 incident cases of schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 44, 916.Google Scholar
Wicks, S, Hjern, A, Dalman, C (2010). Social risk or genetic liability for psychosis? A study of children born in Sweden and reared by adoptive parents. American Journal of Psychiatry 167, 12401246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wicks, S, Hjern, A, Gunnell, D, Lewis, G, Dalman, C (2005). Social adversity in childhood and the risk of developing psychosis: a national cohort study. American Journal of Psychiatry 162, 16521657.Google Scholar
Xiao, J, Buka, SL, Cannon, TD, Suzuki, Y, Viscidi, RP, Torrey, EF, Yolken, RH (2009). Serological pattern consistent with infection with type I Toxoplasma gondii in mothers and risk of psychosis among adult offspring. Microbes and Infection 11, 10111018.Google Scholar