Publications by authors named "N Zaks"

Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates how maternal mental health affects birth outcomes, particularly looking at complications and congenital anomalies in newborns, while accounting for maternal physical health and family background.
  • - Using data from over 74,000 children born between 1997-2008 in Israel, the researchers found significant links between maternal mental health issues during pregnancy and negative neonatal outcomes, although these links weakened when considering maternal physical health.
  • - The findings suggest that both maternal and paternal mental health diagnoses independently contribute to adverse birth outcomes, highlighting the importance of addressing physical health and family dynamics in understanding these associations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Rare copy number variants (CNVs) are pathogenic for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and effect neurocognitive impairment. In aggregate, NDD CNVs may present in up to 2% of population cohorts with implications for neuropsychiatric disease risk and cognitive health. However, analyses of NDD CNVs in biobanks or population cohorts have been hindered by limited clinical or cognitive phenotypes, and a lack of ancestral diversity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: Reproductive system and mental health disorders are commonly comorbid in women. Although the causes of this overlap remain elusive, evidence suggests potential shared environmental and genetic factors associated with risk.

Objective: To investigate the comorbidity between psychiatric and reproductive system disorders, both as broad diagnostic categories and among specific pairs of diagnoses.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A large number of studies have examined the association between advanced paternal age (APA) and risk of schizophrenia in offspring. Here we present an overview of epidemiological studies on this subject published since 2000, and systematically summarize their methodologies and results. Next, we discuss evidence to elucidate the potential mechanisms contributing to the association between APA and offspring schizophrenia, considering paternal psychiatric morbidity and genetic liability, maternal factors, and findings from family design studies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accumulating evidence from observational studies, genetic research, and animal models suggests a relationship between toxic and nutritive elements and psychotic spectrum disorders (PSD). This review systematically evaluates the current research evidence for two hypotheses: 1) that exposures to abnormal levels of toxic and nutritive elements early in life contributes to the subsequent development of PSD, and 2) that an imbalance of element levels is linked to psychotic illness and clinical severity. We focused on the extant literature on five elements, lead (Pb), copper (Cu), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn), because of their previously documented associations with psychiatric problems and the availability of pertinent literature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF