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Psychiatric Illness in First-Degree Relatives of Patients with Paranoid Psychosis, Schizophrenia and Medical Illness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Kenneth S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Human Genetics, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. Medicine, New York
Catherine C. Masterson
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Biologic Research Center, Bronx Veteran's Administration Medical Center
Kenneth L. Davis
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Biologic Research Center, Bronx Veteran's Administration Medical Center and Department of Psychiatry, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York
*
Reprint requests to Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, PO Box 710, Richmond, VA 23298.

Abstract

This study examines the respective morbid risk for psychiatric illness determined by the family history method in the first-degree relatives of medical controls and patients with delusional disorder (paranoid psychosis) and schizophrenia. The morbid risk for schizophrenia and schizoid-schizotypal personality disorder was significantly greater in the relatives of the schizophrenic patients than in those of the delusional disorder or medical control patients, but no difference in the risk for affective illness or alcoholism was found in the three groups of relatives. Paranoid personality disorder was significantly more common in the relatives of the delusional disorder patients than in those of the medical controls. These results support the familial independence of delusional disorder and schizophrenia.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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