Sunspots and the recency theory of schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia, a disorder with a high, fairly uniform, global distribution, can occur with or without an accompanying family history of mental disorder. Given the preponderance of sporadic cases and the low fertility of genetic cases, this combination suggests that the disorder might be caused by a globally active teratogen. It has recently been shown that some factor associated with high sunspot activity acts transgenerationally to reduce lifespan. The following article discusses the relevance of that finding to changes in the incidence of schizophrenia and suggests that schizophrenia is caused by some factor associated with sunspots.