Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T23:23:46.867Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychiatric Morbidity in Parents and Sibs of Schizophrenics and Non-Schizophrenics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. A. Stephens ,
M. W. Atkinson ,
D. W. K. Kay ,
M. Roth  and
R. F. Garside
D. A. Stephens
Affiliation:
St. George's Hospital, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 2NU
M. W. Atkinson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of South Manchester, West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 8LR
D. W. K. Kay
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP
M. Roth
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP
R. F. Garside
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The aims of this study were to compare the psychiatric morbidity occurring in the close relatives (N = 332) of patients showing nuclear forms of schizophrenia with that of a control group (N = 201), and to consider the findings in relation to the concept of the schizophrenic ‘spectrum’ and to some genetic theories of schizophrenia. About one third of each group were interviewed by a psychiatrist using defined diagnostic criteria, and information of varying degrees of completeness was obtained about the remainder. After considering possible biases, it was concluded that the ‘spectrum disorders' most likely to be biologically related to schizophrenia were personality disorders of non-neurotic type, either alone or in combination with another diagnosis. The results, however, did not fit well with the model of dominant inheritance of schizophrenia and schizoid disease proposed by Heston (1970).

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 127 , Issue 2 , August 1975 , pp. 97 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alanen, Y. O. (1958) The mothers of schizophrenic patients. Acta Psyckiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica, 33, Suppl. 124.Google Scholar
Alanen, Y. O. (1968) From the mothers of schizophrenic patients to interactional family dynamics. In The Transmission of Schizophreni. (eds. Rosenthal, and Kety, ). Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Benedetti, G. (1953) The Alcohol Hallucinoses. Stuttgart: Thieme.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1911) Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias. Trans. Ziskin, J., 1950. New York: International University Press.Google Scholar
Gadoret, R. J. (1973) Toward a definition of the schizoid state: evidence from studies of twins and their families. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 679–85.Google Scholar
Heston, L. L. (1966) Psychiatric disorders in foster-home reared children of schizophrenic mothers. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 819–25.Google Scholar
Heston, L. L. (1970) The genetics of schizophrenic and schizoid disease. Science, 167, 249–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kallmann, F. J. (1938) The Genetics of Schizophrenia, New York: Augustin.Google Scholar
Kallmann, F. J. (1953) Heredity in Health and Mental Disorder. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Kay, D. W. K., Atkinson, M. W., Stephens, D. A., Roth, M. & Garside, R. F. (1975) Genetic hypothesis in the light of the psychiatric morbidity in the families of schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 109–18.Google Scholar
Kety, S. S., Rosenthal, D., Wender, P. H. & Schulsinger, P. (1968) The types and prevalence of mental illness in the biological and adoptive families of adopted schizophrenics. In The Transmission of Schizophreni. (eds. Rosenthal, and Kety, ). London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Mitsuda, H. (1967) A clinico-genetic study of schizophrenia. In Clinical Genetics in Psychiatr. (ed. Mitsuda, ). Tokyo: Igaku Shoin.Google Scholar
Planansky, K. (1965) Conceptual boundaries of schizoidness: suggestions for epidemiological and genetic research. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 142, 318–30.Google Scholar
Romney, D. M. (1969) Psychometrically assessed thought disorder in schizophrenic and control patients and in their parents and siblings. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 999–1002.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1970) Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behaviour, New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Slater, E. (1958) The monogenic theory of schizophrenia. Acta Genetica (Basel), 8, 50–6.Google ScholarPubMed
Slater, E. & Cowie, V. (1971) The Genetics of Mental Disorders. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Roth, M. (1969) Clinical Psychiatry. 3rd ed. London: Baillière, Tindall and Cassell.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.