Research published in JAMA Psychiatry demonstrated that exposure to infections during the first year of life was associated with lower IQ and higher risk for nonaffective psychosis in adulthood.
“Prospective birth cohort studies suggest that childhood infections are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood and with abnormal neurodevelopment in childhood/adolescence as measured by school grade or neurological soft signs; however, studies using IQ tests in a general population sample are rare,” Golam M. Khandaker, PhD, department of psychiatry, University of Cambridge, and colleagues wrote. “It is unclear whether lower IQ mediates or moderates the association between childhood infection and adult psychosis.”