At Issue: Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders in Persons Exposed to Ionizing Radiation as a Result of the Chernobyl Accident

tains viewpoints and arguments on controversial issues. Articles published in this section may not meet the strict editorial and scientific standards that are applied to major articles in the Bulletin. In addition, the viewpoints expressed in the following article do not necessarily rep-resent those of the staff or the Editorial Advisory Board of the Bulletin.—The Editors. We studied schizophrenia spectrum disorders in Chernobyl accident survivors by analyzing Chernobyl exclusion zone (EZ) archives (1986-1997) and by con-ducting a psychophysiological examination of 100 patients with acute radiation sickness (ARS) and 100 workers of the Chernobyl EZ who had worked as "liq-uidators-volunteers " for S or more years since 1986-1987. Beginning in 1990, there has been a signifi-cant increase in the incidence of schizophrenia in EZ personnel in comparison to the general population (5.4 per 10,000 in the EZ versus 1.1 per 10,000 in the Ukraine in 1990). Those irradiated by moderate to high doses (more than 0.30 Sv or 30 rem), including ARS patients, had significantly more left frontotempo-ral limbic and schizophreniform syndromes.1 We hypothesized that ionizing radiation may be an envi-ronmental trigger that can actualize a predisposition to schizophrenia or indeed cause schizophrenia-like disorders. The development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders in overirradiated Chernobyl survivors may be due to radiation-induced left frontotemporal limbic dysfunction, which may be the neurophysiological basis of schizophrenia-like symptoms. Persons exposed to 0.30 Sv or more are at higher risk of schizophrenia ' l Gy (gray) = one unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation = 100 rad (radiation absorbed dose). 1 Sv (sievert) = one unit of effective dose of ionizing radiation = 100 rem (roentgen equivalent man). Regarding the Chernobyl accident, 1 Sv = 1 Gy. spectrum disorders. An integration of international efforts to discuss and organize collaborative studies in this field is of great importance for both clinical medi-cine and neuroscience