Wakefulness and arousal in neonates born to women with schizophrenia: diminished arousal and its association with neurological deviations.

Arousal at 3-4 days of age was blindly assessed during the course of a standardized neurological examination of offspring born to index women with schizophrenic (n = 20), schizo-affective (n = 12), affective (n = 19) and unspecified functional (n = 4) psychoses, as well as 70 offspring born to control women with no history of psychosis. The offspring of women with schizophrenia was the only index group to differ from controls in showing significantly reduced arousal. Among the offspring of schizophrenics, reduced arousal was associated with neurological abnormality and deviant sensitivity to stimulation but not with obstetric complications. Only a subgroup of schizophrenics' offspring showed these characteristics. Deviations in arousal, neurological status and sensitivity may be part of a more generalized pattern representing a possibly genetically based neurodevelopmental disorder evident within this particular group at heightened risk for schizophrenia.