title: Cortical inhibition in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients assessed with transcranial magnetic stimulation.
abstract: Although cortical inhibition deficit has been shown in schizophrenia patients by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), some controversies remain, possibly due to confounding factors such as medication use and clinical state at the time of assessment. First-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients, who share various degrees of genetic vulnerability with the patients, but are free from confounds related to medication and/or florid psychosis, have not been studied to date. We compared 12 relatives with 14 controls on several paradigms with TMS. Three of the 12 healthy relatives lacked transcallosal inhibition (TI) in one or more of the stimulation levels. There were no significant differences in other parameters. The lack of TI in 25% of the relatives is an important finding that needs to be replicated in larger samples that are heterogeneous in terms of psychosis-proneness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. meram.can.saka@medicine.ankara.edu.tr
authors.forename: Meram Can
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Saka
authors.forename: E Cem
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Atbasoglu
authors.forename: Halise Devrimci
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Ozgüven
authors.forename: H Ozden
authors.initials: HO
authors.lastname: Sener
authors.forename: Ebru
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozay
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation