According to information in the article, the lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia is approximately 1 percent in the general population, but the risk is 10 to 15 percent in children with an affected parent.

Erland W. Schubert, M.D., and Thomas F. McNeil, Ph.D., followed 166 adult children in the Swedish High-Risk Project, a study of children of women with schizophrenic, schizoaffective, and affective disorders with no history of psychosis. The children and their environments were studied before they were born and again during childhood. The current report gives information from follow-up of these children at 22 years of age.

The researchers found that compared with children whose mothers had no signs of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders (91 children), the children of mothers with schizophrenia (28 children) showed a significantly increased frequency of Axis I (clinical disorders like anxiety disorder, depression, schizophrenia) and Axis II disorders (personality disorders such as anti-social disorder or histrionic personality disorder), poor global functioning, high Symptom Checklist-90 scores (a checklist of psychological symptoms), and a history of mental health care and psychopharmacologic medication use.

Children of mothers with affective disorders (22 children) showed high Symptom Checklist-90 scores, more frequent poor functioning, and receipt of mental health care with a significant increase in Axis I depressive disorders. There was no increase in Axis II disorders in this group.

The authors noted, "A high rate of accumulated signs of mental disturbance, defined according to our a priori model, was especially abundant among [children of mothers with schizophrenia]: 89 percent of these offspring had 1 or more signs of mental disturbance. Our results confirm that maternal psychosis, and definitely schizophrenia, plays an important role in the mental health of offspring in young adulthood."