title: Childhood-onset schizophrenia: smooth pursuit eye-tracking dysfunction in family members.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS), a severe form of the disorder, is of interest for etiologic studies. Smooth pursuit eye-tracking dysfunction (ETD) is a biological marker for schizophrenia.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare familial eye-tracking abnormalities for COS and adult-onset schizophrenia (AOS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Eye-tracking performance for 70 COS parents, 64 AOS parents and 20 COS siblings was compared to their respective age-matched control groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  COS and AOS parents had higher rate of dichotomously rated eye-tracking dysfunction than their respective controls (16% vs. 1% and 22% vs. 4%, respectively). COS parents and siblings also differed from controls on several continuous measures. However, scores for COS, AOS and control groups overlapped extensively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Genetic factors underlying eye-tracking dysfunction appear more salient for COS. However, eye-tracking measures have to be used with caution for endophenotypic definition due to low predictive power.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The study was done at the National Institutes of Health.
authors.affiliation: Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Health, Bldg 10, Rm 3N202, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. sporna@intra.nimh.nih.gov
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sporn
authors.forename: Deanna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Greenstein
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gogtay
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sailer
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Hommer
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rawlings
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nicolson
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.forename: Marge
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenane
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gochman
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Weinberger
authors.forename: Judith L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Rapoport
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015835:Ocular Motility Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D012561:Schizophrenia, Childhood / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index