A prospective study of offspring of women with psychosis: visual dysfunction in early childhood predicts schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in adulthood

Objective: Children with visual dysfunction have perinatal, neurological, visual-perceptual and cognitive abnormalities, similar to schizophrenia patients. We prospectively investigated whether visual dysfunction in childhood selectively predicts adult schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, and is related to childhood neurological abnormality. Method: Offspring of mothers with and without a history of psychosis were prospectively assessed with vision tests at 4 years, neurological examinations at 6 years, and interviews for psychiatric disorders at follow-up (93% effective, n = 166) at 22 years. Results: In the total sample and high-risk (HR) offspring, visual dysfunction at 4 years, and its severity, were associated only with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in adulthood, and with neurological abnormality at 6 years. Conclusion: Visual dysfunction at 4 years of age selectively predicts schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in adulthood among HR offspring, this likely reflecting disturbed neurological development.