during World War II, a Nazi-imposed famine in the Netherlands from October 1944 to May 1945, the effects of which were later associated with an increased risk of mental illness in the offspring born to Dutch women who were pregnant at the time. In particular, evidence from epidemiological studies of the Dutch Hunger Winter and of a similarly severe famine in China from 1959 to 1961 suggests that prenatal exposure to maternal starvation and nutritional deficiency plays a role in an offspring’s later development of schizophrenia. Also called Hunger Winter. See also fetal programming.