Environmental causes of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a “chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder” as it has been described throughout history.  It is a mental disease that affects individuals at any point of their life which is caused by genetic, physical, psychological and environmental factors. It however has the tendency to strike adolescents or those in early adulthood. Persons affected by it are often times delusional due to a breakdown in the thought process. The signs and symptoms of this illness vary from individual to individual.

Sad as it is, schizophrenia develops as a result of interplay between the kind of environment to which a person is exposed and their biological predisposition, such as inheriting certain genes. The environmental causes of schizophrenia, as scientists put it, are not simply where you live, or your house, but it includes anything and everything that involves genes. The environmental causes referred to in this article include the nutritional, social, hormonal and chemical environment in the mother’s womb during pregnancy. This is further evaluated up to the social dynamics and stresses the individual experiences, street drug use, virus exposure, vitamin use, education and so forth.

Take an example of an expectant mother going through everyday life experiences including environmental factors. These experiences increase the stress levels for the mother and child. The common factors include bereavement, such as the death of a spouse or close family member, an unwanted child, if the pregnancy occurred unexpectedly and was undesired at the time of conception, and maternal depression. Birth complications also greatly contribute to these causes. These complications are hypoxia, which is low oxygen levels at birth, and pre-eclampsia, which is high blood pressure during pregnancy. This baby has a high risk of getting this illness.

A source from Library of Science, 2005 - Comparison of a Selected Set of Relatively Well-Established Risk Factors for Schizophrenia, Focusing Mainly on Pre- and Antenatal Factors describes the “odds ratio” of environmental factors.  This ratio suggests that a child born during the winter months in the Northern hemisphere has about a 10% higher risk of the illness than average. It further suggests that a child born to a mother who has Rubella has about a 500% increased risk of schizophrenia. Another example is that a person born in an urban environment has about a 50% higher risk of developing schizophrenia.

The good news is that there avoidance techniques for reducing the risk of suffering from this illness. If you, however, feel exposed, or know someone who may be exposed, and need help, talk to a genetic counsellor and/or a medical practitioner.