Citation

Schug RA, Yang Y, Raine A, Han C, Liu J. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 2010; 198(12): 870-875.

Affiliation

Department of Criminal Justice, California State University, Long Beach, CA; Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Departments of Criminology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China; School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181fe7280

PMID

21135637

Abstract

Birth order-a unique index of both neurodevelopmental and/or psychosocial factors in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorder-remains largely unexplored in violent schizophrenia. We examined whether murderers with schizophrenia would demonstrate birth order anomalies, distinguishing them from both nonviolent schizophrenia patients and murderers without schizophrenia. Self-report birth order, psychosocial history data (i.e., maternal birth age, family size, parental criminality, parental SES), and structural magnetic resonance imaging data were collected from normal controls, nonviolent schizophrenia patients, murderers with schizophrenia, murderers without schizophrenia, and murderers with psychiatric conditions other than schizophrenia at a brain hospital in Nanjing, China. Results indicated that murderers with schizophrenia were characterized by significantly increased (i.e., later) birth order compared with both nonviolent schizophrenia patients and murderers without schizophrenia. Additionally, birth order was negatively correlated with gray matter volume in key frontal subregions for schizophrenic murderers, and was negatively correlated with parental SES. Findings may suggest biological, psychosocial, or interactional trajectories which may lead to a homicidally violent outcome in schizophrenia.

Language: en