Metal Exposure of the Squirrel Monkey Fetus as a Model of Human Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Figure 1 gives a tentative overview of the spectrum of chronic neuropsychiatric disorders, i.e.,cognitive and emotive disturbances leading to long-term continuous or repeated need of help from the health care system, and an indication of the change of their prevalence over age. In total, these disorders may affect in the order of 10–20% or more of a population, and are responsible for a large part of human suffering and economic costs in any society. For the sake of prevention, research into the causes of these entities is important. Little is known even of the specific time of the etiology/pathogenesis. There is, obviously, more evidence for a prenatal etiology/pathogenesis, as to specific agents and times of origin, for those disorders which are diagnosed at an early postnatal age, e.g.,mental retardation, than for those which are diagnosed later, such as dementia (see Figure 1). However, the high prevalence, in mental retardation, of other neuropsychiatric disorders (see, e.g.,Dosen, 1989) suggests the possibility that it is not uncommon that also these disorders have a prenatal etiology/pathogenesis. In the case of schizophrenia, there are indications of both prenatal (“developmental”) and late (“degenerative”) pathogeneses. An example of an established link between fetal disturbances and a much later development of a neuropsychiatric disturbance is the high incidence of Alzheimer’s dementia in Down’s syndrome.