Background: Suggestive findings of an earlier study that prenatal nutritional deficiency was a
determinant of schizophrenia prompted us to undertake a second test of the hypothesis
using more precise data on both exposure and outcome. Methods: Among persons born in
the cities of western Netherlands during 1944 through 1946, we compared the risk for
schizophrenia in those exposed and unexposed during early gestation to the Dutch Hunger
Winter of 1944/1945. The frequency of hospitalized patients with schizophrenia at age 24 to …