title: Morbidity risk of schizophrenia to parents and siblings of schizophrenic patients.
abstract: In order to estimate the familial morbidity risk of schizophrenia, parents and siblings of 1,691 inpatients meeting the DSM-III criteria for schizophrenia were investigated on the basis of a review of medical records, family history data and/or personal interviews. The morbidity risks of schizophrenia to parents and siblings of the schizophrenic probands were 4.0% and 4.1%, respectively, which were greater than the morbidity risk in the general population. Siblings of 118 probands whose parents suffered from schizophrenia were at a significantly greater risk of schizophrenia than siblings of 1,493 probands whose parents did not have schizophrenic illness. These findings support the notion of familial transmission of schizophrenia. A total of 16.4% of the schizophrenic probands had at least one first-degree relative with schizophrenia. This is significantly greater in the female probands than in the male probands.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008370:Manuals as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D012306:Risk; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*