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Extreme prenatal maternal stress is a
biologically plausible risk factor but only a few studies have examined this
effect. For example, a Danish study reported an association between adverse
prenatal maternal life events (eg. severe emotional stress such as
bereavement) and cranial-neural-crest malformations. In a Finish study,
offspring of mothers whose husbands died during the pregnancy (mostly during
wartime) had a significantly increased risk for schizophrenia and other
psychiatric disorders. Also the 1940 invasion of the Netherlands was
associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia among those in utero at
that time. One explanation for these findings is excessive release of
maternal cortisol, which may be toxic to the developing fetal hippocampus. |