Famine, death, and madness: Schizophrenia in early adulthood after prenatal exposure to the Chinese Great Leap Forward Famine

Song, Shige; Wang, Wei; Hu, Peifeng

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.01.027

Cited by 108 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The fact that four consecutive cohorts of urban women who were born around the time of the GLFF, all of which experienced at least some prenatal famine exposure, suffered from an increased risk of stillbirth strongly suggests that such an increase is real and famine exposure does have a long-term negative effect on female reproductive function. These findings are similar to the results reported by Song, Wang and Hu (2009) with respect to the effect of prenatal famine exposure on schizophrenia.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Only one study, conducted by Song, Wang and Hu (2009), utilised all three sources (temporal, spatial, and institutional) of variation in the GLFF impact simultaneously to isolate the long-term health consequences of prenatal malnutrition. This study showed that famine severity, measured as the famine-induced increase in infant mortality, significantly increased the risk of schizophrenia among the urban famine cohort but not among the rural famine cohort.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results reported by Song, Wang and Hu (2009) were based on a regression model that included three-way interaction between birth cohort, regional famine severity index, and urban-rural status. A similar model was estimated in this study as follows:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, prenatal famine exposure has no significant long-term effect on women's risk of miscarriage. Knowing that the GLFF-induced malnutrition influenced both the urban and rural populations whereas the GLFF-induced excess population attrition was primarily a rural phenomenon (Dikotter 2010;Lin and Yang 2000;Peng 1987;Song, Wang, and Hu 2009), these results suggest that prenatal exposure to the GLFF has both a negative foetal origins effect that increases the risk of stillbirth and a selection effect that 'decreases' the risk of stillbirth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…If such famine-induced population change is not random (i.e., famine survivors are significantly different from those who never experienced famine because the famine 'weeded out' the frail individuals and only the strong and healthy ones survived), simple cohort comparison between the famine and non-famine cohorts, which is the most commonly used identification strategy in famine-based studies, can lead to biased results. More recent studies confirmed that famine-induced population attrition is likely to be non-random (Gorgens, Meng, and Vaithianathan 2011;Song 2010), which creates selection effects that may change and even reverse the estimated relationship between famine exposure and health outcomes (Song, Wang, and Hu 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine

Song¹

2013

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDScientists disagree on whether prenatal malnutrition has long-term influences on women's reproductive function, and empirical evidence of such long-term effects remains limited and inconsistent. METHODSUsing the retrospective pregnancy history of 12,567 Chinese women collected in a nationally representative sample survey in 2001, this study conducted difference-indifferences analyses to investigate the relationship between prenatal exposure to the 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward Famine in China and the subsequent risk of involuntary foetal loss, including miscarriage and stillbirth, and how this relationship changes between the rural and urban populations. RESULTSPrenatal exposure to the Great Leap Forward Famine had no long-term effect on women's risk of miscarriage. Such an exposure increased the risk of stillbirth among urban women but not among rural women. CONCLUSIONSThe results support the foetal origins hypothesis. The significant urban-rural difference in the effect of prenatal famine exposure on stillbirth suggests the presence of a longterm negative foetal origins effect and a strong selection effect caused by famineinduced population attrition.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine

Song¹

2013

DemRes

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Epigenetic Medicine

Jirtle¹,

Bernal²,

Skaar³

2011

Encyclopedia of Molecular Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine

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The Role of Early Nutritional Deficiencies in the Development of Psychopathology

Schmidt

Osterholm

Georgieff

2016

Developmental Psychopathology

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Lack of adequate nutrition is a serious public health concern in both developing and developed countries. In developing countries, this condition usually takes the form of generalized malnutrition (including deficiencies in both macronutrients and micronutrients). In developed countries, strict micronutrient deficiencies are more common. Early nutritional deficits are associated with disturbances in cognitive development and to the later development of psychopathology. Following a brief historical overview, the authors present a review of the studies directly linking early malnutrition to the later development of various types of psychopathologies including schizophrenia spectrum disorders, antisocial behavior and other externalizing disorders, substance use disorders, and internalizing disorders such as depression. To provide a wider context, the discussion progresses to a review of the effects of early malnutrition on cognitive development surveying both human and animal studies. This is followed by a brief exploration of the effects of generalized malnutrition on the neurobiology of the developing nervous system including a summary of the effects of specific micronutrient deficiencies. The chapter concludes with an examination of potential mechanisms to explain the contribution of nutritional deficits to the development of psychopathology. Translational implications for the study of developmental psychopathology are also discussed.

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Famine, death, and madness: Schizophrenia in early adulthood after prenatal exposure to the Chinese Great Leap Forward Famine

Cited by 108 publications

References 31 publications

Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine

Prenatal malnutrition and subsequent foetal loss risk: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese famine

Epigenetic Medicine

The Role of Early Nutritional Deficiencies in the Development of Psychopathology

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