Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-plnhv Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2025-07-31T09:08:35.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychiatric Morbidity in the First-Degree Relatives of Schizophrenic Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Shashjit L. Varma  and
Indira Sharma
Shashjit L. Varma*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan 16150, Malaysia
Indira Sharma
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

First-degree relatives (FDRs) of 1018 schizophrenic and 812 control probands were investigated. Psychiatric morbidity was present in 34.8% of FDRs of schizophrenic probands and in 9.2% of FDRs of controls. There was significantly more psychiatric illness in the siblings and parents than in the offspring of both schizophrenic and control subjects. The morbidity risks for schizoid-schizotypal personality disorders, cannabis-use disorder and paranoid personality disorder were significantly higher in the FDRs of schizophrenic patients than in those of controls, suggesting a biological relationship.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 5 , May 1993 , pp. 672 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abrams, R. & Taylor, M. A. (1983) The genetics of schizophrenia: a reassessment using modem criteria. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 171–175.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM-III). Washington, DC: APA Google Scholar
Baron, M., Risch, N. & Mendlewicz, J. (1983a) Age-at-onset in bipolar-related major affective illness. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, 5–18.Google Scholar
Baron, M., Risch, N. & Mendlewicz, J., Gruen, R., Asnis, L., et al (1983b) Familial relatedness of schizophrenia and schizotypal states. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 1437–1442.Google Scholar
Baron, M., Risch, N. & Mendlewicz, J., Asnis, L., Gruen, R., Rainer, J. D., et al (1985) A family study of schizophrenic and normal control probands - implications for the spectrum concept of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 447–455.Google ScholarPubMed
Bleuler, E. (1911) Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias (transl. Zinkin, J., 1950). New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Cadoret, R. J. (1973) Definition of the schizoid state: evidence from studies of twins and their families. British Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 679–685.Google Scholar
Endicott, R., Andreasen, N. & Spitzer, R. L. (1975) Family History - Research Diagnostic Criteria. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Francos, E., Athanassenas, G., Tsitourides, S., et al (1985) Prevalence of DSM-III schizophrenia among the first-degree relatives of schizophrenic probands. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 72, 382–386.Google Scholar
Gershon, E. S., DeLisi, L. E., Hamovit, J., et al (1988) A controlled family study of chronic psychoses. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 328–336.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottesman, I. I., Shields, J. & Helston, L. L. (1979) Schizoid phenotypes in the co-twins of schizophrenics. In Psychiatry, Genetics and Pathography (eds Roth, M. & Cowie, V.). London: Gaskell.Google Scholar
Guze, S. B., Cloninger, R. C. & Martin, R. L. (1983) A follow-up and family study of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1273–1276.Google Scholar
Heston, L. (1970) The genetics of schizophrenic and schizoid disease: the evidence for a dominant gene theory. Science, 167, 249–256.Google Scholar
Kallmann, F. J. (1938) The Genetics of Schizophrenia. New York: Augustin.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S. (1983) Heritability of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 131.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S. & Gruenberg, A. M. (1982) The genetic relationship between paranoid personality disorder and the ‘schizophrenia spectrum’ disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 1185–1186.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S. & Gruenberg, A. M., Masterson, C. C., Ungaro, R., et al (1984) A family history study of schizophrenia-related personality disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 424–427.Google ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. S. & Gruenberg, A. M., Masterson, C. C., Ungaro, R., Catherine, C. M. & Kenneth, L. D. (1985) Psychiatric illness in first degree relatives of patients with paranoid psychosis, schizophrenia and medical illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 524–531.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Gruenberg, A. M. & Tsuang, M. T. (1988) A family study of the subtypes of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 57–62.Google Scholar
Kety, S. S. (1983) Mental illness in the biological and adoptive relatives of schizophrenic adoptees: findings relevant to genetic and environmental factors in etiology. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 720–727.Google ScholarPubMed
Perry, J. D. & Klerman, G. L. (1978) The borderline patient. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 141–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Planansky, K. (1966) Conceptual boundaries of schizoidness: suggestion for epidemiological and genetic research. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 142, 318–331.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pope, H. G. Jr., Jonas, J., Cohen, B., et al (1982) Failure to find evidence of schizophrenia in first degree relatives of schizophrenic probands. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 826–828.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1970) Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behaviour. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1971) The Genetics and Psychopathology. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Sharma, I. & Agnihotri, S. S (1984) Psychiatric morbidity in first degree relatives of schizophrenic patients. Indian Medical Gazette, cxviii, 142–144.Google Scholar
Shields, J., Heston, L. L. & Gottesman, I. I. (1975) Schizophrenia and the schizoid: the problem for genetic analysis. In Genetic Research in Psychiatry (eds Fieve, R. R., Rosenthal, D. & Brill, H.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Siever, I. J. & Gunderson, J. G. (1979) Genetic determinants of borderline conditions. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 5, 59–86.Google Scholar
Solonoff, P. H. & Millward, J. W. (1983) Psychiatric disorders in the families of borderline patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 37–44.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 857–862.Google Scholar
Stephens, D. A., Atkinson, M. W., Kay, D. W. K., et al (1975) Psychiatric morbidity in parents and sibs of schizophrenics and non-schizophrenics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 97–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tsuang, M. T., Winokur, G. & Crowe, R. R. (1980) Morbidity risks of schizophrenia and affective disorders among first degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia, mania, depression, and surgical conditions. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 497–504.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M. T., Winokur, G. & Crowe, R. R., Fleming, J. A., Kendler, K. S., et al (1988) Selection of controls for family studies, biases and implications. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 1006–1008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verghese, A., Beig, A., Senseman, L. A., et al (1973) A social and psychiatric study of a representative group of families in Vellore town. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 61, 608–620.Google Scholar
Weiner, H. (1985) Schizophrenia: etiology. In Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry/IV(eds Kaplan, H. I. & Sadock, B. J.), pp. 650–679. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Merikangas, K. R. & Pauls, D. L. (1983) Heritability of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 131–132.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.