Association of Duffy blood group with schizophrenia in Chinese

✍ Scribed by N. Saha; J. S. H. Tay; W. F. Tsoi; E. H. Kua; D. C. Rao; G. P. Vogler

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 169 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0741-0395
• DOI: 10.1002/gepi.1370070408

✦ Synopsis

Letter to the Editor

Association of Duffy Blood Group With

Schizophrenia in Chinese

To The Editor: Schizophrenia is a common psychiatric disorder with a life- time risk of about 1% [Bleuler, 1978; Gottesman and Shields, 19821. The extent of genetic contribution (H2) to the aetiology of schizophrenia has been estimated to be around 0.6 [McGue et al., 19831. Twin and adoption studies also support a high degree of genetic influence [Gottesman, 1978;Heston, 1966; Kety et al., 19781. The pattern of inheritance does not seem to be Mendelian, but rather fits a multifactorial threshold model [McGue et al., 19831. In an attempt to understand the mode of genetic operation, extensive work has been carried out in search of associations with blood groups, with quite conflicting results [reviewed by Mourant et al., 1975; McGuffin and Sturt, 19861. Most of these studies were confined to ABO, Rhesus (D), MN, and secretor status. We have carried out the only study to date using Duffy blood group in schizophrenics and healthy controls of Chinese origin. We report here a possible significant association with the Duffy blood group.