Kaohsiung J Med Sci
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Kaohsiung J Med Sci · Jul 1998
ReviewGenetic epidemiology of schizophrenia: review and reassessment.
When a rigorous methodological approach is utilized, a substantial majority of recent studies provide evidence for the familial transmission of schizophrenia. Although the absolute rates of schizophrenia among relatives of schizophrenics tend to be lower than those reported in the earlier studies due to the restrictiveness of contemporary definitions of schizophrenia, the risk to relatives compared to that of controls has remained quite consistent. This observation that relatives of schizophrenics have an elevated risk for schizophrenia compared to controls is consistent with theories of both genetic and environmental transmission. ⋯ Genetic linkage analysis promised to clarify the mechanisms of transmission, but early positive reports were subsequently overturned and, to date, there are no consistently replicated positive linkage findings for schizophrenia. There is now a world-wide search for the location of the genes on specific chromosomes which are responsible for schizophrenia. The clinical implications of current work to the future of locating a schizophrenic gene or genes will be discussed.