Psychiatric morbidity in the first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients

✍ Scribed by Varma, Shashjit Lal; Zain, Azhar Md; Singh, Suarn

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 98 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-7299
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-8628(19970221)74:1<7::aid-ajmg2>3.0.co;2-s

✦ Synopsis

There is increasing evidence that genetic factors play a role in the etiology of schizophrenic disorders. One thousand eightynine first-degree relatives of schizophrenics and 1,137 controls were studied to discover their psychiatric morbidity. Psychiatric morbidity was found in 16.34% of the firstdegree relatives (FDR) of schizophrenics (parents, 5.69%; siblings, 7.71%; offspring, 2.94%) as compared to 6.9% in the controls (P < 0.001). Schizophrenia was found in 8.3% of the patient group, which was significantly higher (0.2%) as compared to the controls. Schizoid-schizotypal personality disorder was found in 3.03% of FDRs of the schizophrenic group. Depressive disorder was found in 4.4% and 2.1% in the control and patient group, respectively, which was statistically significant. Morbidity risk of schizophrenia was found in 16.97%, 6.22% and 5.79% of schizophrenia, schizoid-schizotypal personality disorder and depressive disorder, respectively, in the FDR of schizophrenic group.