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Fertility of the Sibs of Schizophrenic Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Carol Buck
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
G. Edgar Hobbs
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario, Westminster Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada
Helen Simpson
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
James M. Wanklin
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Summary

This investigation has provided evidence against the hypothesis that heterozygous carriers of a schizophrenic gene have a reproductive advantage through enhanced fertility. An advantage arising from lower mortality between birth and the end of the reproductive period was not investigated, but should be examined before we search for other explanations of the apparently stable polymorphism of schizophrenia.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

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