Family Study Of Schizophrenia Research Articles

The finnish adoptive family study of schizophrenia

A nationwide Finnish sample of index offspring given up for adoption by schizophrenic women has been compared blindly with matched controls, that is, adopted-away offspring of nonschizophrenic biologic parents. The adoptive families have been investigated directly by joint and individual interviews and psychological tests. Interviewing and testing of biologic parents is in progress. In the total sample, thus far examined, of 124 index offspring, 9 (7.3%) have become psychotic; of 147 control offspring, 2 (1.4%) have become psychotic.

Biological Markers in Schizotypal Personality Disorder

The establishment of the new diagnostic category, Schizotypal Personality Disorder (SPD), has stimulated biological studies of patients with this disorder. Such studies offer the potential of better understanding the diagnosis and treatment of SPD as well as more clearly defining the boundaries of the schizophrenic disorders. SPD has been studied in the clinical setting, in family studies of schizophrenia, and in the biological high-risk paradigm. In most cases, biological variables associated with schizophrenia have been evaluated. Decreased activities of plasma amine oxidase and platelet monoamine oxidase have been associated with SPD in the families of schizophrenics and in "biological high-risk" studies. Smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) impairment has also been associated with SPD in a "biological high-risk" study of college students. Inferior backward masking performance has been demonstrated in SPD patients in the clinical setting. Other studies using psychophysiological measures have been applied to subjects with psychological characteristics similar to DSM-III SPD and found biological abnormalities similar to those reported in schizophrenia. These studies are consistent with the possibility that some individuals with SPD may share common psychobiological abnormalities with schizophrenic individuals and may sharpen our understanding of SPD and its relationship to schizophrenia.

A follow-up and family study of schizophrenia.

The Washington University Psychiatry Clinic, St Louis, study began with the systematic clinical evaluation of a cross section of 500 of the clinic's patients. This was followed by a "blind" follow-up of the index subjects and a blind study of first-degree relatives. This report deals with the diagnosis of schizophrenia at index, at follow-up, and among the first-degree relatives. The results indicate that the criteria used for the diagnosis of schizophrenia select patients who show a high degree of diagnostic consistency over many years, although not all patients who meet these criteria after follow-up receive the diagnosis of schizophrenia initially. Most important, the diagnostic criteria select cases associated with a strong familial increase in the risk of schizophrenia (nearly fivefold). The follow-up results indicate also that Feighner-positive schizophrenics often experience intercurrent depressions, but that the presence of such depressions does not affect the familial incidence of either schizophrenia or primary affective disorders.

Familial concordance in schizophrenia: A comparative study of pairs of sibs

Intrafamilial resemblance in psychiatric clinical features may provide a powerful tool to the search for an explanation of the distheis-stress duality. Family studies of schizophrenia have emphasized the role of familial concordance for subtype diagnosis, 1,2 symptomatology, 2,3,5 mode, 2 and age of onset, 2,5,7 outcome, 8 and sex 9–14 in psychiatric research. Most of these studies have failed, however, to apply uniform criteria for the selection of patients and were based on retrospective and non-blind evaluation of family members. An attempt has been made in this study to apply updated research criteria for the diagnosis of schizophrenia and to evaluate probands in a blind fashion as regards their relatives. Combined variables have been analyzed in order to further elucidate the issue of familial homogeneity in schizophrenia. Efforts to correlate between the results of this study and certain biologic derangements are currently being made (Baron, et al.: Tissue-Serum Affinity in Schizophrenia: Clinical and Familial Determinants, in preparation), aimed at achieving a better understanding of the “nature-nurture” duality.

A critical review of recent adoption, twin, and family studies of schizophrenia: behavioral genetics perspectives.

Continuing uncertainty about the etiology of schizophrenia calls for periodic reappraisal of relevant data and conclusions, reappraisals guided by a beacon of modest doubt to avoid the distorted views of both the zealot and the skeptic. This review does not set out to cover every possible aspect of the genetics of schizophrenia. It deals with data from recent family, twin, and adoption studies of schizophrenia rather than with theoretical issues—data primarily selected because they provide grist for one or another genetically powered mills. conference entitled The Transmission of Schizophrenia, held at Dorado Beach, Puerto Rico, in 1967 (Rosenthal and Kety 1968) is our point of departure, since it was there that the first reports were given of the adoption studies carried out in Denmark by Rosenthal, Kety, Wender, Schulsinger, and their colleagues (Kety et al. 1968 and Rosenthal et al. 1968). This is not to say there was no credible evidence in favor of genetic influences in schizophrenia before the adoption studies

Commentary on "a critical review of recent adoption, twin, and family studies of schizophrenia: behavioral genetics perspectives".

It is unfortunate that because of limitations of time and prior commitments, I have been unable to prepare the definitive critique that the article by Gottesman and Shields (1976) deserves. A proper resurvey of the material they have reviewed and evaluated would require several months. It is also unfortunate that they wrote their critical review unaware of the paper entitled Communication of the Adoptive Parents of Schizophrenics by Wynne, Singer, and Toohey (1976). Reading the paper will certainly lead Gottesman and Shields to modify some of their stronger statements about the significance of the findings of the various adoption studies—statements such as the following that to me seem unwarranted on the basis of the evidence:

Sampling issues in family studies of schizophrenia.

Data from an epidemiologic study of schizophrenia were used to determine how many subjects in the large sample pool met eligibility criteria for family study. Of 549 patients with interview data only 29.1% were eligible. Eligible were compared with ineligible schizophrenic patients on 15 variables likely to influence family interaction patterns; the small group of male patients who actually cooperated in the Family Study were compared on the same variables with those who refused to participate. On nine variables the groups were similar, but they differed on six. Eligible and cooperating patients were of higher socioeconomic status and earlier birth order; they were younger when interviewed and when admitted to the hospital; and were more likely to have been diagnosed acute rather than paranoid or chronic schizophrenic.

An Icelandic Family Study of Schizophrenia

At the present time there is a renewal of interest in the contribution of biological factors to schizophrenic illness. This stems in part from the success of pharmacological treatment and in part from the impressive findings in studies of foster-reared relatives of schizophrenics. While the pendulum of emphasis thus seems to be generally swinging in favour of constitutional influences, recent reports on twin studies have tended to go in the opposite direction. As will be discussed below, this development is largely attributable to a methodological error in the most recent twin investigations.