ArticlePsychiatry investigation2011
Schizophrenia, cancer and obstetric complications in an evolutionary perspective-an empirically based hypothesis.
Article in Psychiatry investigation, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- DNA methylation signatures associated with early-onset schizophrenia in Chinese patients.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Drug repositioning: examining antipsychotic drugs and their anticancer effects.Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2025Review
- Functional Variants of miR-143 Are Associated with Schizophrenia Susceptibility: A Preliminary Population-Based Study and Bioinformatics Analysis.Biochemical genetics · 2022Article
- Perinatal complications and executive dysfunction in early-onset schizophrenia.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- NPTX2 promotes colorectal cancer growth and liver metastasis by the activation of the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway via FZD6.Cell death & disease · 2019Article
- Glioma in Schizophrenia: Is the Risk Higher or Lower?Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2018Review
- miRNAs and their role in the correlation between schizophrenia and cancer (Review).Molecular medicine reports · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivePatients diagnosed with schizophrenia have reduced fecundity and premature mortality (both accidental and violent) with no obvious compensatory advantages among kin. The prevalence of the disorder is around 0.7/1%, higher than the expected prevalence of spontaneous mutations. Genes favoring schizophrenia may have been positively selected in the environment of evolutionary adaptation. Literature on potential adaptive genes is reviewed within an evolutionary framework.
methodsLiterature search on major scientific search engine (PubMed/Medline, Ovid/PsychInfo) on papers aimed at investigating potential pathways justifying a mutation-selection balanced model. Findings are presented with a narrative touch to favor readability and understanding.
resultsReduced incidence of cancer in both patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and their siblings was reported worldwide. Such findings are notable given higher cancer risk factors in schizophrenia, i.e., smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, poor diet, and poor adherence to therapy. Some genes involved in cancer proliferation might as well confer protective advantage in immune-surveillance, inflammation, vascular proliferation or apoptosis that otherwise will adversely affect early neurodevelopment.
conclusionEvidence that reduced risk of certain somatic diseases is associated with schizophrenia is quite significant to progress in the evolutionary epidemiological analysis of psychopathology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.