Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-68ccn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T02:17:22.496Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new developmental epidemiology of schizophrenia: the HRB Schizophrenia Research Unit, 1991-92, and contemporary perspectives of the disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

John L Waddington  and
Conall Larkin
John L Waddington
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
Conall Larkin
Affiliation:
St. John of God Hospital, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

General aspects of research funding in the biomedical sciences are briefly discussed and some specific issues of policy considered, as they relate particularly to the Health Research Board's Unit strategy. The origins, objectives and workings of the Board's Schizophrenia Research Unit are elaborated, in relation to contemporary perspectives of this illness as a neuro-developmental disorder, and the extent of progress made over it's first year of operation is outlined. It is argued that the ‘neurodevelopmental hypothesis’ now has substantial foundations; it provides an important conceptual focus, both for the field in general and for the Health Research Board's Schizophrenia Research Unit in particular.

Keywords

Research fundingSchizophreniaNeurodevelopment
Type
Perspectives
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 56 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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

1.Murray, RM, Lewis, SW. Is schizophrenia a neurodevelopmental disorder? Br Med J 1987; 295: 681–682.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Weinberger, DR. Implications of normal brain development for the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiat 1987; 44: 660–669.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3.Waddington, JL. The pathobiology of lost human potential: schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental disorder. Ir J Med Sci 1991; 160: 402–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Waddington, JL, Torrey, EF. Schizophrenia, neurodevelopment and disease. Arch Gen Psychiat 1991; 48: 271–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Bradbury, TN, Miller, GA. Season of birth in schizophrenia: a review of evidence, methodology and etiology. Psychol Bull 1985; 98: 569–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
6.O'Callaghan, E, Gibson, T, Colohan, HA, Walshe, D, Buckley, P, Larkin, C, Waddington, JL. Season of birth in schizophrenia: evidence for confinement of an excess of winter births to patients without a family history of mental disorder. Brit J Psychiat 1991; 158: 764–769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
7.Green, MF, Satz, P, Gaier, DJ, Ganzell, S, Kharabi, F. Minor physical anomalies in schizophrenia. Schiz Bull 1989; 15: 91–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
8.O'Callaghan, E, Larkin, C, Kinsella, A, Waddington, JL. Familial, obstetric and other clinical correlates of minor physical anomalies in schizophrenia. Amer J Psychiat 1991; 148: 479–483.Google ScholarPubMed
9.Lewis, SW. Congenital risk factors for schizophrenia. Psychol Med 1989; 19: 5–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.O'Callaghan, E, Larkin, C, Kinsella, A, Waddington, JL. Obstetric complications, the putative familial-sporadic distinction, and tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia. Brit J Psychiat 1990; 157: 578–584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.McNeil, TF. Obstetric complications in schizophrenic parents. Schiz Res 1991; 5: 89–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
12.Mednick, SA, Machon, RA, Huttenen, MO, Bonet, D. Adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic. Arch Gen Psychiat 1988; 45: 189–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.O'Callaghan, E, Sham, P, Takei, N. Glover, G, Murray, RM. Schizophrenia after prenatal exposure to 1957 A2 influenza epidemic. Lancet 1991; 337: 1248–1250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14.Waddington, JL. Neurodynamics of abnormalities in cerebral metabolism and structure in schizophrenia. Schiz Bull 1993; 19: 55–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15.O'Callaghan, E, Colgan, K, Cotter, D, Larkin, C, Walsh, D, Waddington, JL. Evidence for confinement of winter birth excess in schizophrenia to those born in cities. Schiz Res 1992; 6: 102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Lane, A, Byrne, M, Mulvaney, F, Larkin, C, Waddington, JL, Walsh, D, O'Callaghan, E. Evidence for increased fertility in married male schizophrenics. Schiz Res 1992; 6: 94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.O'Callaghan, E, Gibson, T, Colohan, HA, Buckley, P, Walshe, DG, Larkin, C, Waddington, JL. Risk of schizophrenia in adults born after obstetric complications and their association with early onset of illness: a controlled study. Br Med J 1992; 305: 1256–1259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18.Youssef, HA, Kinsella, A, Waddington, JL. Evidence for geographical variations in the prevalence of schizophrenia in rural Ireland. Arch Gen Psychiat 1991; 48: 254–258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
19.Waddington, JL, Youssef, HA, Kinsella, A. Geographical variations in the prevalence of schizophrenia. Arch Gen Psychiat 1992; 49: 907–908.Google Scholar
20.Waddington, JL, Youssef, HA. The declining incidence of schizophrenia in a rural Irish population of unusual homogeneity: secular trend towards early onset and male preponderance. Schiz Res 1992; 6: 101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Waddington, JL, O'Callaghan, E, Larkin, C, Redmond, O, Stack, J, Ennis, JT. Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy in schizophrenia. Brit J Psychiat 1990; 157 (Suppl 9): 56–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22.Waddington, JL, O'Callaghan, E, Buckley, P, Larkin, C, Redmond, O, Stack, J, Ennis, JT. The age dependencies of MRI abnormalities in schizophrenia suggest early ventricular enlargement but later prominence of cortical atrophy. Schiz Res 1991; 5: 188–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23.O'Callaghan, E, Buckley, P, Redmond, O, Stack, J, Ennis, JT, Larkin, C, Waddington, JL. Abnormalities of cerebral structure in schizophrenia on magnetic resonance imaging: interpretation in relation to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis. J Roy Soc Med 1992; 85: 227–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.Waddington, JL, O'Callaghan, E, Buckley, P, Larkin, C, Redmond, O, Stack, JP, Ennis, JT. Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy in schizophrenia in relation to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis. Clin Neuropharmacol 1992; 15 [Suppl 1]: 118A–119A.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Buckley, P, Stack, JP, Madigan, C, O'Callaghan, E, Larkin, C, Redmond, O, Ennis, JT, Waddington, JL. Magnetic resonance imaging of schizophrenia-like psychoses associated with cerebral trauma: clinico-pathological correlates. Amer J Psychiat 1993; 150: 146–148.Google Scholar
26.Deakin, JFW, Slater, P, Simpson, MDC, Gilchrist, AC, Skan, WJ, Royston, MC, Reynolds, GP, Cross, AJ. Frontal cortical and left temporal glutamatergic dysfunction in schizophrenia. J Neurochem 1989; 52: 1781–1786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27.O'Callaghan, E, Redmond, O, Ennis, R, Stack, J, Kinsella, A, Ennis, JT, Larkin, C, Waddington, JL. Initial investigation of the left temporoparietal region in schizophrenia by 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Biol Psychiat 1991; 29: 1149–1152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28.Waddington, JL, O'Boyle, KM. Drugs acting on brain dopamine receptors: a conceptual re-evaluation five years after the first selective D-1 antagonist. Pharmacol Ther 1989; 43: 1–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29.Seeman, P, Niznik, HB, Guan, HC, Booth, G, Ulpian, C. Link between D1 and D2 dopamine receptors is reduced in schizophrenia and Huntington diseased brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1989; 86: 10156–10160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
30.Waddington, JL, Daly, SA. The status of “second generation” selective D1 dopamine receptor antagonists as putative atypical antipsychotic agents. In: Meitzer, HY, ed. Novel antipsychotic drugs. New York: Raven Press, 1992: 109–115.Google Scholar
31.Lyons, F, Martin, ML, Maguire, C, Jackson, A, Regan, CM, Shelley, RK. The expression of an N-CAM serum fragment is positively correlated with severity of negative features in type II schizophrenia. Biol Psychiat 1988; 23: 769–775.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32.Buckley, P, O'Callaghan, E, Larkin, C, Redmond, O, Stack, J, Waddington, JL. MRI, cerebral pathology, and schizophrenia. Biol Psychiat 1992; 31: 209–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Buckley, P, O'Callaghan, E, Larkin, C, Waddington, JL. Schizophrenia Research: the problem of controls. Biol Psychiat 1992; 32: 215–217.Google ScholarPubMed
34.Waddington, JL. Contemporary professional issues in research on schizophrenia. Schiz Res 1992; 7: 201–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
35.Waddington, JL, Weller, MPI. Schizophrenia, genetic retrenchment and epidemiological renaissance. Arch Gen Psychiat 1992; 49: 990–994.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed