Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:17:34.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

People at risk of schizophrenia

Sample characteristics of the first 100 cases in the Edinburgh High-Risk Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Ann Hodges
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Majella Byrne
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Elizabeth Grant
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Eve Johnstone*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
*
Eve Johnstone, Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EHIO 5HF

Abstract

Background

The Edinburgh High-Risk Study is designed to explore the underlying pathogenesis of schizophrenia.

Aims

To establish the sample characteristics of the first 100 subjects in this study of young adults at risk of schizophrenia for genetic reasons, and to compare them with appropriate controls.

Method

Details of the recruitment of the first 100 high-risk subjects aged 16–25 years into a prospective Scotland-wide study are given. Subjects and 30 age- and gender-matched normal controls were interviewed using the PSE, SADS-L and SIS and an unstructured psychiatric interview.

Results

Some significant differences emerged between the high-risk group and the control group, namely in previous psychiatric history (31 v. 6.3%), forensic contacts (19 v. 3.1%) and delinquent behaviour (20 v. 3.1%). There were also differences in some parameters from the SIS: childhood social isolation, interpersonal sensitivity, social isolation, suicidal ideation, restricted affect, oddness and disordered speech.

Conclusions

These differences may represent increased risk of developing schizophrenia although their true significance will not be revealed until the cohort has been followed through the at-risk years.

Type
Preliminary Report
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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.)

Footnotes

See invited commentaries pp. 554–557. this issue.

Declaration of interest

Supported by the Medical Research Council.

References

Allen, J. S. & Sarich, V. M. (1988) Schizophrenia in an evolutionary perspective. Perspectives in Biology and Mediane, 32, 132153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambelas, A. (1992) Preschizophrenics: adding to the evidence, sharpening the focus. British Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 401404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM–IV). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Asarnow, J. R. (1988) Children at risk for schizophrenia; converging lines of evidence. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 14, 613631.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Battaglia, M. & Torgerson, S. A. (1996) The schizophrenia high-risk project in Copenhagen: three decades of progress. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 94, 303310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, T. D. & Mednick, S. A. (1993) The schizophrenia high-risk project in Copenhagen: three decades of progress. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 87 (suppl. 370). 3347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, L. A. & Chapman, J. P. (1987) The search for symptoms predictive of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 497503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J. (1995) A Darwinian approach to the origins of psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 1225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Done, D. J., Crow, T. J., Johnstone, E. C., et al (1994) Childhood antecedents of schizophrenia and affective illness: social adjustment at ages 7 and 11. British Medical Journal, 309, 699703.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dworkin, H., Cornblatt, B. A., Friedmann, R., et al (1993) Childhood precursors of affective vs. social deficits in adolescents at risk of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 19, 563577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, H., Cornblatt, B. A., Friedmann, R., Lewis, J. A., Cornblatt, B. A., et al (1994) Social competence deficits in adolescents at risk for schizophrenia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 182, 103108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endlcott, J. & Spltzer, R. L. (1978) A diagnostic interview; the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 837844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erienmeyer-Kimling, L. & Cornblatt, B. (1987) High risk research in schizophrenia; a summary of what has been learned. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 21, 401411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erienmeyer-Kimling, L. & Cornblatt, B., Rock, A., Squires-Wheeler, E., et al (1991) Early life precursors of psychiatric outcomes in adulthood in subjects at risk for schizophrenia or affective disorders. Psychiatry Research, 39, 239256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falconer, D. S. (1945) The inheritance of liability to certain diseases estimated from the incidence among relatives. Annals of Human Genetics, 29, 5176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, M. J. (1987) The UCLA high-risk project. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 505514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gottesman, I. I. (1994) Schizophrenia epigenesis: past, present, and future. Acta Psychiatrica Scandmavica, 90 (suppl. 384), 2633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunderson, J. G., Siever, L. J. & Spaulding, E. (1983) The search for a schizotype. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1522.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Häfner, H., Maurer, K., Loffler, W., et al (1993) The influence of age and sex on the onset and earty course of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 8086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jablensky, A. (1995) Schizophrenia. Recent epidemiological issues. Epidemiological Reviews, 17, 1020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, E. C. (1994) Searching for the Causes of Schizophrenia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnstone, E. C., Frith, C. D., Lang, F. H., et al (1995) Determinants of the extremes of outcome in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 604609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, P., Rodgers, B., Murray, P., et al (1994) Child development risk factors for adult schizophrenia in the British 1946 birth cohort. Lancet, 344, 13981402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. (1985) Diagnostic approaches to schizotypal personality disorder: a historical perspective. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 11, 538553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K., Greunberg, A. M. & Strauss, J. S. (1981) An independent analysis of the Copenhagen Sample of the Danish Adoption Study of Schizophrenia I. The relationship between anxiety disorder and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 973977.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendler, K., Greunberg, A. M. & Tsuang, M. T. (1985) Psychiatric illness in the first degree relatives of schizophrenics and surgical control patients. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 770779.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K., Lieberman, J. A. & Wahn, D. (1989) The structured interview for Schizotypy (SIS): A preliminary report. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 559571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrie, S. M., Whalley, H., Kestelman, J., et al (1999) Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in subjects at high risk of developing schizophrenia. Lancet, 353, 3033.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenzenwenger, M. F. (1994) Psychometric high risk paradigm, perceptual aberrations and schizotypy: an update. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 20, 121135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGlashan, T. (1984) Schizotypal personality disorder: Chestnut Lodge follow up study VI. Long term follow up perspectives. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 329334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGue, M. & Gottesman, I. I. (1989) Genetic linkage in schizophrenia: Perspectives from genetic epidemiology. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 15, 453463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGuffin, P. & Owen, M. (1991) The molecular genetics of schizophrenia: an overview and forward view. European Archives of Clinical Neuroscience, 240, 169173.Google ScholarPubMed
McGuffin, P., Farmer, A. & Harvey, I. (1991) A polydiagnostic application of operational criteria in studies of psychotic illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 764770.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGuire, P. K., Jones, P., Harvey, L. et al (1995) Morbid risk of schizophrenia for relatives of patients with cannabis-associated psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 15, 277281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maler, W., Lichtermann, D., Minges, J., et al (1994) Personality disorders among the relatives of schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 20, 481493.Google Scholar
Malla, A. K. & Norman, R. M. G. (1994) Prodromal symptoms in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 487493.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mirsky, A. F., Kugelmass, S., Ingraham, I. G., et al (1995) Overview and summary: Twenty-five year follow-up of high-risk children. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 21, 227239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, R. & Lewis, S. (1907) Is Schizophrenia a neurodevelopmental disorder? British Medical journal (Clinical Research Edition), 295, 681682.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parnas, J. Teasdale, T. & Schulsinger, H. (1985) Institutional rearing and diagnostic outcome in children of schizophrenic mothers. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 762769.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudin, E. (1916) Zur Verenburg und Neuentstehung der Dementia Praecox. Berlin: Springer-Vsrlag.Google Scholar
Schuldberg, D. (1993) Personal resourcefulness: positive aspects of functioning in high-risk research. Psychiatry, 56, 137152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sham, P. (1996) Genetic epidemiology. British Medical Bulletin, 52, 408433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slever, L. J. & Gunderson, G. (1983) The search for a schizotypal personality: historical origins and current status. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 24, 199212.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Gibbon, M., et al (1917) User Guide for the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM–III–R. New York: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R. (1986) The pathogenesis of schizophrenia: a neurodevelopmental disorder. In The Neurology of Schizophrenia (eds Nasrallah, H. A. & Weinberger, D. R.) pp. 397406. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Weinberger, D. R. (1995) From neuropathology to neurodevelopment. Lancet, 346, 552557.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weintraub, S. (1987) Risk factors in schizophrenia: The Stony Brook High-Risk Project. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 439450.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartoriut, N. (1974) Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms: An Instruction Manual for the PSE and Catego Programme. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.