ArticleThe British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science2019
Long-term effects of prenatal exposure to earthquake on adult schizophrenia.
Article in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- The association between prenatal famine, DNA methylation and mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical epigenetics · 2023Pooled it
- The Molecular Machinery of Synaptic Plasticity and Its Potential Role in the Aetiology of Schizophrenia.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Timing of Exposure to Parental Depression From Pregnancy to Young Adulthood and Mental Health in Adult Offspring.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Synergistic pathways to psychosis: understanding developmental risk and resilience factors.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Partner-inclusive prenatal intervention to promote parenting readiness: Results from a pilot trial.Infant mental health journal · 2025Article
- Post-traumatic growth in later-life cognitive function? Evidence from the 1976 Great Tangshan Earthquake.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Maternal stress during pregnancy alters circulating small extracellular vesicles and enhances their targeting to the placenta and fetus.Biological research · 2024Article
- Prenatal Stress Induces Long-Term Behavioral Sex-Dependent Changes in Rats Offspring: the Role of the HPA Axis and Epigenetics.Molecular neurobiology · 2023Article
- Earthquake exposure during adolescence and later-life depressive symptoms: A national cross-sectional survey.SSM - population health · 2023Article
- UrinaryMetabolites · 2023Article
- Maternal psychological distress associates with alterations in resting-state low-frequency fluctuations and distal functional connectivity of the neonate medial prefrontal cortex.The European journal of neuroscience · 2023Article
- Pre-birth acquisition of personhood: Incremental accrual of attributes as the framework for individualization by serial and concurrently acting developmental factors.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2023Review
- Incidence rate of schizophrenia after the Tangshan earthquake in China: a 44-year retrospective birth cohort study.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- The Impact of Maternal Prenatal Stress Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic during the First 1000 Days: A Historical Perspective.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Association between exposure to earthquake in early life and diabetes mellitus incidence in adulthood with the modification of lifestyles: Results from the Kailuan study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- Prenatal exposure to the SARS epidemic emergency and risk of cognitive impairment in toddlers.Science bulletin · 2021Article
- Maternal exposure to a high-magnitude earthquake during pregnancy influences pre-reading skills in early childhood.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Prenatal mental health and the effects of stress on the foetus and the child. Should psychiatrists look beyond mental disorders?World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMaternal exposure to major stressors during pregnancy has been found to increase the risk of neurodevelopmental, cognitive and psychiatric disorders in the offspring. However, the association between prenatal exposure to earthquake and the risk of adult schizophrenia has yet to be examined.
aimsTo explore the potential long-term effects of prenatal exposure to maternal stress on the risk of schizophrenia in adulthood, using the Great Tangshan Earthquake in 1976 as a natural experiment.
methodWe obtained data from the Second China National Sample Survey on Disability, and analysed 94 410 Chinese individuals born between 1975 and 1979. We obtained difference-in-differences estimates of the earthquake effects on schizophrenia by exploiting temporal variation in the timing of earthquake exposure across four birth cohorts born between 1975 and 1979, along with geographical variation in earthquake severity at the prefecture level. Schizophrenia was ascertained by psychiatrists using the ICD-10 classification. Earthquake severity was measured by seismic intensity.
resultsEarthquake cohort who experienced prenatal exposure to felt earthquake had higher risk of schizophrenia (odds ratio, 3.38; 95% CI 1.43-8.00) compared with the unexposed reference cohort. After specifying the timing of exposure by the trimester of pregnancy, prenatal exposure to felt earthquake during the first trimester of pregnancy increased the risk of adulthood schizophrenia significantly (odds ratio, 7.45; 95% CI 2.83-19.59).
conclusionsPrenatal (particularly early pregnancy) exposure to maternal stress after a major disaster substantially affects the mental health of Chinese adults.
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