Overview
- An analysis of Finnish nationwide health registers used an emulated target-trial design covering 56,395 adolescents in psychiatric care who had received antibiotics.
- Adolescents prescribed doxycycline had a 30–35% lower 10-year risk of schizophrenia than peers treated with other antibiotics.
- Supplementary checks indicated the association was unlikely to be driven by acne treatment or other measured differences between groups.
- Authors cite anti-inflammatory effects and potential influence on synaptic pruning during brain development as biologically plausible mechanisms.
- The peer-reviewed study, led by the University of Edinburgh with partners in Finland and Ireland, appears in the American Journal of Psychiatry.