Cousin marriages and schizophrenia in Saudi Arabia.
The rate and degree of consanguinity in the parents of 143 schizophrenics who satisfied the DSM-III diagnostic criteria, was compared in the same number of controls matched for age, sex and socioeconomic class. A family history of disorders suggestive of schizophrenia in the offspring of consanguineous parents who were schizophrenic, was compared with the incidence of a similar history in the schizophrenic offspring of non-consanguineous parents. There was no statistically significant difference in the former, but there was in the latter. This finding supports the theory of a familial tendency towards schizophrenia and the possibility of recessive or a multigene pattern of inheritance.
Chaleby
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Department of Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Tuma
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TA
D003241:Consanguinity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*