The British Journal of Psychiatry 137: 505-509 (1980)
© 1980 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Schizophrenia on paternal and maternal sides: an analysis of familial factors
M Baron
Slater's model of assessing distribution patterns of ancestral secondary
cases in family trees was applied to pedigree data on schizophrenia.
Eighteen schizophrenic probands with at least two ill second-degree
relatives were available for study. The distribution of unilateral to
bilateral pairs of affected relatives did not deviate significantly from
that expected in polygenic inheritance. Contrasting pedigrees with family
history of chronic schizophrenia with pedigrees loaded with 'soft spectrum'
disorders, i.e., borderline schizophrenia, did not alter the consistency of
the data with polygenic transmission.