Schizophrenia is another disorder whose incidence rises markedly during adolescence and whose presentation shows significant sex differences (Castle, Sham, & Murray, 1998; Grossman, Harrow, Rosen, Faull, & Strauss, 2008; McGlashan & Bardenstein, 1990). Schizophrenia is slightly more common in males (McGrath, Saha, Chant, & Welham, 2008). Males also have a distinct peak age of onset during late adolescence and young adulthood, while the peak in females is later and more gradual, and there is a second rise in incidence around the time of menopause (Angermeyer & Kuhn, 1988). If schizophrenia is linked to abnormalities in adolescent brain development, this would seem counter-intuitive based on the behavioral and brain imaging data that females mature earlier than males. It has been suggested that the pubertal surge in estrogen levels seen in females but not males has a neuroprotective effect, possibly serving to delay onset of the disorder and ameliorate some of its effects (Kulkarni et al., 2008). Women with schizophrenia also tend to continue to have better outcomes, linked at least in part to better social functioning than males (Castle & Murray,
