Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:55:33.323Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Gender in Understanding the Familial Transmission of Schizoaffective Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jill M. Goldstein ,
Stephen V. Faraone ,
Wei J. Chen  and
Ming T. Tsuang
Jill M. Goldstein*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Section on Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and Harvard Schools of Medicine and Public Health, USA
Stephen V. Faraone
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Section on Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and Harvard Schools of Medicine and Public Health, USA
Wei J. Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Section on Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and Harvard Schools of Medicine and Public Health, USA
Ming T. Tsuang
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Section on Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and Harvard Schools of Medicine and Public Health, USA
*
∗Psychiatry Service (116 A), Brockton VA Medical Center, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, MA 02401, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of gender on the familial risk for schizophrenia and affective disorders in probands with schizoaffective disorder. The sample consisted of 42 DSM–III schizoaffective probands and 149 first-degree relatives from the retrospective cohort family studies, the Iowa 500 and non-500. Survival analysis estimated differences in morbidity risks, analysed by sex of proband and of relative. Findings showed that, among probands, relatives of females had significantly higher rates of schizophrenia and unipolar disorder than relatives of males. Further, among relatives, males were at significantly higher risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders than females. Results were similar when probands were subdivided into their primary symptom patterns, that is ‘mainly schizophrenic’ or ‘mainly affective’, as well as by ‘schizoaffective, depressed’ or ‘schizoaffective, manic’. Implications for the taxonomy of schizoaffective disorder suggest a stronger relationship with schizophrenia, although the relationship with affective disorder remains unclear.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 163 , Issue 6 , December 1993 , pp. 763 - 768
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM–III). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Baron, M. & Risch, N. (1983) X-linkage in affective and schizoaffective disorders: genetic and diagnostic implications. Neuropsychobiology, 8, 304–311.Google Scholar
Bellodi, L., Bussoleni, C., Scorza-Smeraldi, R., et al (1986) Family study of schizophrenia: exploratory analysis for relevant factors. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12 (suppl. 1), 120–128.Google Scholar
Cohen, S. M., Allen, M. G., Pollin, W., et al (1972) Relationship of schizoaffective psychosis to manic depressive psychosis and schizophrenia: findings in 15,909 veteran pairs. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 539–546.Google Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1988) Sex chromosomes and psychosis: the case for a pseudoautosomal locus. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 675–683.Google Scholar
Gershon, E. S., Taragum, S. D., Matthysse, S., et al (1979) Color blindness not closely linked to bipolar illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 1423–1430.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. M. (1993) The impact of gender on understanding the epidemiology of schizophrenia. In Gender and Psychopathology (ed. Seeman, M.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press (ih press).Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. M. & Link, B. G. (1988) Gender differences in the clinical expression of schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 22, 141–155.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. M., Faraone, S. V., Chen, W. J., et al (1990) Sex differences in the familial transmission of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 819–826.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalbfleisch, J. D. & Prentice, R. L. (1980) The Statistical Analysis of Failure Time Data. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Gruenberg, A. M. & Tsuang, M. T. (1985) Psychiatric illness in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic and surgical control patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 770–779.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Gruenberg, A. M. & Tsuang, M. T. (1986) A DSM–III family study of the nonschizophrenic psychotic disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 1098–1105.Google Scholar
Leonhard, K. (1981) Twin investigations on the basis of a differentiated nosology of the endogenous psychoses (biological and environmental influences). In Biological Psychiatry (eds Perris, C., Struwe, G. & Jansson, B.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Lewine, R. R. J. (1981) Sex differences in schizophrenia: timing or subtypes? Psychological Bulletin, 90, 432–444.Google Scholar
Mitsuda, H. (1967) The concept of “atypical psychosis” from the aspect of clinical genetics. In Clinical Genetics in Psychiatry. Problems in Nosological Classification (ed. Mitsuda, H.), pp. 22–26. Tokyo: Igaku Shoin.Google Scholar
Pulver, A. E., Brown, C. H., Wolyniec, P., et al (1990) Schizophrenia: age at onset, gender, and familial risk. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 82, 344–351.Google Scholar
Reich, T., Rice, J., Cloninger, C. R., et al (1979) The use of multiple thresholds and segregation analysis in analyzing the phenotypic heterogeneity of multifactorial traits. Annals of Human Genetics, 42, 271–390.Google Scholar
Rogers, K. L. & Winokur, G. (1988) The genetics of schizoaffective disorder and the schizophrenia spectrum. In The Handbook of Schizophrenia. Nosology, Epidemiology and Genetics of Schizophrenia (eds Tsuang, M. T. & Simpson, J.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Shimizu, A., Kurachi, M., Yamaguchi, N., et al (1987) Morbidity risk of schizophrenia to parents and siblings of schizophrenic patients. Japanese Journal of Psychiatry, 41, 65–70.Google ScholarPubMed
Tsuang, M. T. (1991) Morbidity risks of schizophrenia and affective disorders among first-degree relatives of patients with schizoaffective disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 154–170.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M. T. & Simpson, J. C. (1984) Schizoaffective disorder: concept and reality. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 10, 14–25.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M. T. & Faraone, S. V. (1990) The Genetics of Mood Disorders. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Zerbin-Rubin, E. (1986) Schizoaffective and other atypical psychoses: the genetic aspect. In Schizoaffective Psychoses (eds Marneros, A. & Tsuang, M. T.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.