Paternal age and psychiatric disorders: Findings from a Dutch population registry

Abstract

Background We measured the association between paternal age and schizophrenia (SCZ), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and bipolar disorder (BPD) in the Dutch population. Methods In total, 14 231 patients and 56 924 matched controls were collected and analysed for an association with paternal age by logistic regression. Results ASD is significantly associated with increased paternal age: Older fathers >40 years of age have a 3.3 times increased odds of having a child with ASD compared to young fathers <20 years of age. SCZ has significant associations for fathers aged >35 years (OR=1.27, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.05, 1.53). For MDD, both younger and older fathers have increased odds. No association was found for BPD. Conclusions The effects of paternal age as a risk factor are different for ASD and SCZ on one hand, and the affective disorders on the other hand. Different types of association might indicate different biological or psychosocial mechanisms. Late paternity (associated with predispositions to psychiatric disorders) seems the most probable explanation for the association with paternal age.

Advanced paternal age and reproductive outcome

“…96 In contrast, Buizer-Voskamp et al 87 have not found any association between paternal age and bipolar disorder, but have found that for major depressive disorder, both younger and older fathers had increased odds. …”

“…The population attributable risk percentage was 10% for paternal age of .30 years and 5% for paternal age of ,25 years. Buizer-Voskamp et al 87 have found that schizophrenia had significant associations for fathers aged .35 years (OR51.27). Lee et al 91 have identified distinct characteristics of paternal age-related schizophrenia patients in regard to other schizophrenia patients (a discrepancy between verbal and performance intelligence and an early age of onset among females).…”

“…Offspring of men aged 40 years or older were 5.75 times (P,0.001) more likely to have ASD compared with offspring of men younger than 30 years. BuizerVoskamp et al 87 examined the Dutch registry using 14 231 patients and 56 924 matched controls. ASD was significantly associated with increased paternal age.…”

Genome Arrays for the Detection of Copy Number Variations in Idiopathic Mental Retardation, Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy and Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Lessons for Diagnostic Workflow and Research

“…Also, the evaluation of paternal age contrasts BPD from ASD and schizophrenia. Whereas increased paternal age is a risk factor for developing ASD and schizophrenia, no such association was found for BPD [Buizer-Voskamp et al, 2011b]. The significance of these differences is not clear, because patients with ASD, schizophrenia and BPD share some behavioral and cognitive anomalies, suggesting that similar molecular pathways are disturbed in these disorders [Craddock et al, 2005;Carroll and Owen, 2009;O'Dushlaine et al, 2011].…”

The Age of the Father

“…The cause of this parental age effect remained a mystery until a correlation was found between maternal age and the risk for children with Down, Patau, or Edwards syndrome due to chromosomal nondisjunctions, leading to trisomy 21, 13, and 18, respectively. Epidemiological studies, on the other hand, indicated both maternal and paternal age effects for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neuropsychiatric disorders [Grether et al, 2009;Buizer-Voskamp et al, 2011]. In a large North American study, a 10-year increase in maternal age was associated with a 38% increase in risk for ASD, and a 10-year increase in paternal age with a 22% increase in ASD risk [Grether et al, 2009].…”