---
title: "Psych News Alert: IQ a Factor in Neurodevelopment Process Leading to Psychosis"
description:   PatternKing/Shutterstock  A meta-analysis of data on 4,396 subjects with schizophrenia and 745,000 controls from 12 independent studies f...
image: https://alert.psychnews.org/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_7820986-Jun-24-2025-05-19-47-7396-PM.jpg
---

 7/29/11 12:00 AM

# IQ a Factor in Neurodevelopment Process Leading to Psychosis

![Picture of Psychiatric News Alert](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Psych%20News%20Email%20Banners/PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png?width=50&name=PN-Blue-Box_rgb.png) [ Psychiatric News Alert ](https://alert.psychnews.org/author/psychiatric-news-alert)

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|   PatternKing/Shutterstock |

  A meta-analysis of data on 4,396 subjects with schizophrenia and 745,000 controls from 12 independent studies found significant decrements in premorbid IQ among individuals who later developed schizophrenia. The risk of schizophrenia increased by 3.7 percent for every point decrease in IQ, and greater premorbid IQ decrements were associated with earlier onset of illness.

The results were published online July 11 in *Schizophrenia Research*. IQ alone is not a measure for schizophrenia risk, but as one component among many neurodevelopmental factors, it appears to increase risk across the range of intellectual ability, researchers said.

The study contributes to a growing body of research focused on factors in psychosis risk and early identification of individuals at high risk for developing psychosis. You can read much more about these issues in *Psychiatric News *at [http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/43/3/2.full](http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/43/3/2.full) and [http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/10/18.1.full](http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/10/18.1.full).

[schizophrenia](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/schizophrenia), [psychosis](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychosis), [IQ](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/iq), [psychosis risk](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychosis-risk)

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Charles Taylor/Shutterstock Add stress to high daily caffeine intake, and what do you get?...

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[![](https://alert.psychnews.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Bebbington_66156211-4.jpg?height=200&name=Bebbington_66156211-4.jpg) ](https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/07/child-abuse-ups-odds-of-psychosis-as.html)

[psychosis](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/psychosis), [child abuse](https://alert.psychnews.org/tag/child-abuse)

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Nadil/Shutterstock Young people who were forced to have sex before age 16 were 10 times more likely...

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## [NAMI Survey Examines Patient, Family Perceptions of Early Psychosis](https://alert.psychnews.org/2011/10/nami-survey-examines-patient-family.html)

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