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Implications of Adoption Studies on Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Pekka Tienari
Pekka Tienari*
Affiliation:
University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
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Extract

It is accepted that schizophrenia runs in families, but whether this relates to genetic or psychosocial transmission is an unanswered question. Kendler (1988) has articulated four testable hypotheses: (a) a general liability to any psychiatric illness (b) a liability to schizotypal functioning — oddness, suspiciousness etc. (c) a liability to broadly defined schizophrenic psychosis, or any functional, non-affective psychosis and (d) a specific liability to narrowly defined schizophrenia, e.g. using DSM-III-R criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 1987). Kendler suggests that neither hypothesis (a) nor (d) is correct, and that the familial predisposition is neither completely non-specific nor highly specific; available results strongly support the second hypothesis and also provide some support in favour of the third.

Type
Risk factors
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue S18: Onset and Course of Schizophrenic Disorders: Dynamic Interactions between Relevant Factors , October 1992 , pp. 52 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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