title: Impaired motor performance in adolescents at familial high-risk for schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Harvard Adolescent Family High Risk (FHR) Study examined multiple domains of function in young relatives of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia to identify precursors of the illness. One such area is motor performance, which is deviant in people with schizophrenia and in children at risk for schizophrenia, usually offspring. The present study assessed accuracy of motor performance and degree of lateralization in FHR adolescents and young adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were 33 non-psychotic, first-degree relatives of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, and 30 non-psychotic comparison subjects (NpC), ranging in age from 13 to 25 who were compared using a line-drawing task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  FHR individuals exhibited less precise and coordinated line drawing but greater degree of lateralization than controls. Performance on the linedrawing task was correlated with degree of genetic loading, a possible predictor of higher risk for schizophrenia in the pedigree.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The observation of increased motor deviance and increased lateralization in FHR can be utilized in identification and initiation of the treatment in those at high risk in order to prevent or delay the full manifestation of this devastating condition. The use of a rigorously quantified measure is likely to add to the sensitivity of measuring motor performance, especially when impairments may be subtle.
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Research Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Fall River, MA, USA. Electronic address: theo.manschreck@state.ma.us.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Manschreck
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Research Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Fall River, MA, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Research Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Fall River, MA, USA.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Merrill
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Fall River, MA, USA.
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Maher
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Research Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Fall River, MA, USA.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Boshes
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiology & Neurobiology Laboratory (PsychGENe Lab), Medical Genetics Research Center, Syracuse, NY, USA; Departments of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Glatt
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and Physiology, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Faraone
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavior Genomics, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Genomic Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Tsuang
authors.affiliation: Commonwealth Research Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts Mental Health Center Division of Public Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Seidman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics; D012306:Risk; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Familial high-risk; Genetics; Lateralization; Motor performance; Schizophrenia