Sex Ratios of Newborns: Associated with Prepartum and Postpartum Schizophrenia

Abstract

From a review of the records of schizophrenic women whose psychotic symptoms were associated with pregnancy, it was found that those who had developed a psychosis within 1 month of conception delivered only live female infants. A predominance of males was born to 13 women who became psychotic during the first month after delivery. These observations are interpreted as consistent with a theory that schizophrenia is associated with plasma factors which interact with the fetus and provide the basis for a higher fetal mortality.