Results from a new study published in Psychological Medecine suggest support for the hypothesis that growing up in an urban environment creates a higher risk for developing schizophrenia.

Researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands evaluated the rates of psychotic symtpoms expressed in 918 participants, aged 14-17, over a several-year timespan. Participants were divided into two groups, those who lived in urban areas and those who didn’t. They completed a self-report test of psychotic symptoms once to establish baseline data, then completed the self-report measure again one year later, and then were evaluated for the presence of psychotic symptoms three and a half years after the beginning of the study. Results between the two groups were compared and the highest rate of psychotic symptoms was found in the teenagers who had both factors of baseline psychosis and living in urban areas, suggesting a correlation between urban living and the development of psychosis, at least in those who had pre-existing symptoms.

Previous studies by the same researchers have suggested that higher rates of schizophrenia in urban areas might be explained by a combination of the higher stresses of urban living and increased stress sensitivity in adolescents who develop schizophrenia. Another suggested explanation is higher infection rates in urban areas. Other previous studies have also suggested a positive correlation between rural living and lower rates of schizophrenia.

Again, an area where more research needs to be done, but certainly it suggests that there may be environmental as well as biological factors that contribute to the development of the disease, and that treatments involving mediating environmental stress factors could be helpful.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2006
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.