Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:46:56.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sex Differences in the Familial Transmission of Schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jill M. Goldstein ,
Stephen V. Faraone ,
Wei J. Chen ,
George S. Tolomiczencko  and
Ming T. Tsuang
Jill M. Goldstein*
Affiliation:
The Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and Psychiatry Service, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, USA
Stephen V. Faraone
Affiliation:
The Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and Psychiatry Service, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, USA
Wei J. Chen
Affiliation:
The Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and Psychiatry Service, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, USA
George S. Tolomiczencko
Affiliation:
The Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and Psychiatry Service, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, USA
Ming T. Tsuang
Affiliation:
The Section of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; and Psychiatry Service, Brockton-West Roxbury VA Medical Center, USA
*
∗ Psychiatry Service (116A), Brockton VA Medical Center, 940 Belmont Street, Brockton, MA 02401, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The hypothesis that schizophrenic men have a lower familial risk for schizophrenia than schizophrenic women was tested using the DSM–III-diagnosed samples of the Iowa 500 and non-500 family studies. Survival analyses were used to test for differences in the risk for schizophrenia and spectrum disorders, for sex of proband and sex of relative, controlled for fertility effects and ascertainment bias. Male and female relatives of schizophrenic men had a significantly lower risk for schizophrenia, schizophreniform, and schizoaffective disorders than relatives of schizophrenic women. However, the effect was not significant for the full spectrum nor when analysed by sex of relative. Sex differences in the risk for other psychiatric disorders among relatives of schizophrenic probands were not significant.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 6 , June 1990 , pp. 819 - 826
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd cdn) (DSM–III). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Angermeyer, M. C., Goldstein, J. M. & Kuehn, L. (1989) Gender differences in schizophrenia: rehospitalization and community survival. Psychological Medicine, 19, 365–382.Google Scholar
Bellodi, L., Bussoleni, C., Scorza-Smeraldi, R., et al (1986) Family study of schizophrenia; exploratory analysis for relevant factors. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 12, 120–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J. (1988) Sex chromosomes and psychosis: the case for a pseudoautosomal locus. British Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 675–683.Google Scholar
Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L., Fleiss, J. L., et al (1976) The global assessment scale (GAS): a procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 766–771.Google Scholar
Feigher, J. P., Robins, E., Guze, S. B., et al (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–63.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. (1973) Genetic and environmental factors in schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl. 283).Google Scholar
Flor-Henry, P. (1978) Gender, hemispheric specialization, and psychopathology. Social Science Medicine, 12, 155–162.Google Scholar
Geschwind, N. & Galaburda, A. M. (1985) Cerebral lateralization: biological mechanisms, associations, and pathology. I. A. hypothesis and a program for research. Archives of Neurology, 42, 428–459.Google Scholar
Gittelman-Klein, R. & Klein, D. F. (1969) Premorbid asocial adjustment and prognosis in schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 7, 35–53.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. M. (1988) Gender differences in the course of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 684–689.Google ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, J. M. & Link, B. G. (1988) Gender and the expression of schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 22, 141–155.Google Scholar
Goldstein, J. M., Tsuang, M. T. & Faraone, S. V. (1989) Gender and schizophrenia: implications for understanding the heterogeneity of the illness. Psychiatry Research, 28, 243–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldstein, J. M., Santangelo, S. L., Simpson, J. C., et al (1990) The role of gender in identifying subtypes of schizophrenia: a latent class approach. Schizophrenia Bulletin, (in press).Google Scholar
Gottesman, I. I. & Shields, J. (1972) Schizophrenia and Genetics: A Twin Study Vantage Point. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gottesman, I. I. & Shields, J. (1982) Schizophrenia: The Epigenetic Puzzle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gur, R. E., Gur, R. C., Skolnick, B. E., et al (1985) Brain function in psychiatric disorders. HI. Regional cerebral blood flow in unmedicated schizophrenics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 329–334.Google Scholar
Guze, S. B., Cloninger, C. R., Martin, R. L., et al (1983) A follow-up and family study of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 1273–1276.Google Scholar
Kendler, K. S., Gruenberg, A. M. & Tsuang, M. T. (1985) Psychiatric illness in first-degree relatives of schizophrenic and surgical control patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 770–779.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kringlen, E. (1968) An epidemiological-clinical twin study on schizophrenia. In The Transmission of Schizophrenia (eds D. Rosenthal & S. Kety). Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Lee, E. T. (1980) Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis. California: Lifetime Learning Publication.Google Scholar
Lewine, R. J. (1988) Gender and schizophrenia. In Handbook of Schizophrenia, vol. 3, Nosology, Epidemiology, and Genetics. (eds M. T. Tsuang & J. C. Simpson). Amsterdam: Elsevier Press.Google Scholar
Lewine, R. J., Burbach, D. & Meltzer, H. Y. (1984) Effects of diagnostic criteria on the ratio of male to female schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 84–87.Google Scholar
Lewis, S. W. (1989) Congenital risk factors for schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 19, 5–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loyd, D. W., Simpson, J. C. & Tsuang, M. T. (1985) A family study sex differences in the diagnosis of atypical schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 1366–1368.Google Scholar
Mednick, S., Schulsinoer, F., Teasdale, T., et al (1978) Schizophrenia in high risk children: sex differences in predisposing factors. In Cognitive Defects in the Development of Mental Illness (ed. G. Serban). Amsterdam: Brunner/Mazel.Google Scholar
Mednick, S., Machon, R. A., Hunen, M. O., et al (1988) Adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic. Archives of General Psychiatry, 45, 189–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, J., Clancy, J., Crowe, R., et al (1972) The Iowa 500: I. Diagnostic validity in mania, depression, and schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 457–461.Google Scholar
Murray, R. M., Reveley, A. M. & Lewis, S. W. (1988) Family history, obstetric complications and cerebral abnormality in schizophrenia. In Handbook of Schizophrenia, Vol. 3, Nosology, Epidemiology, and Genetics (eds M. T. Tsuang & J. C. Simpson). Amsterdam: Elsevier Press.Google Scholar
Murray, R., Owen, M., Goodman, R., et al (1989) A neurodevelopmental perspective on some epiphenomena of schizophrenia. In Plasticity and Morphology of the Central Nervous System (eds C. L. Cazzullo, G. Invernizzi, E. Sacchetti, et al). Lancaster: MTP Press.Google Scholar
Nasrallah, H. A., Andreasen, N. C., Coffman, J. A., et al (1986) A controlled magnetic resonance imaging study of corpus callosum thickness in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 21, 274–282.Google Scholar
Pearlson, G. D., Garbacz, D. J., Mobero, P. J., et al (1985) Symptomatic, familial, perinatal and social correlates of CAT changes in schizophrenia and bipolars. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 173, 42–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Risch, N. (1983) Estimating morbidity risks in relatives: the effect of reduced fertility. Behavioral Genetics, 13, 441–451.Google Scholar
Rosanoff, A., Handy, L., Plesset, I., et al (1934) The etiology of so-called schizophrenic psychoses. American Journal of Psychiatry, 91, 247–286.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, D. (1962) Familial concordance by sex with respect to schizophrenia. Psychological Bulletin, 59, 401–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salokangas, R. K. (1983) Prognostic implications of the sex of schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 145–151.Google Scholar
Seeman, M. V. (1985) Sex and schizophrenia. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 30, 313–315.Google Scholar
Seeman, M. V. (1985) Interaction of sex, age, and neuroleptic dose. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 24, 124–128.Google Scholar
Shimizu, A., Kurachi, M., Yamaguchi, N., et al (1987) Morbidity risk of schizophrenia to parents and siblings of schizophrenia patients. Japanese Journal of Psychiatry and Neurology, 41, 65–70.Google Scholar
Slater, E. (1953) Sex-linked recessives in mental illness? Acta Genetica et Statistica Medico, 4, 273–280.Google Scholar
Slater, E. & Cowie, V. (1971) The Genetics of Mental Disorders. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, W. D. & Weissman, M. W. (1981) Quantifying lifetime risk of psychiatric disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 16, 113–126.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M. & Winokur, G. (1975) The Iowa-500: field work in a 35–year follow-up of depression, mania, and schizophrenia. Canadian Psychological Association Journal, 20, 359–365.Google Scholar
Tsuang, M., Woolson, R. F. & Simpson, J. C. (1980) The Iowa Structured Psychiatric Interview: rationale, reliability and validity. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (suppl. 283), 1–38.Google Scholar
Turner, S. W., Toone, B. K. & Brett-Jones, J. R. (1986) Computerized tomographic scan changes in early schizophrenia - preliminary findings. Psychological Medicine, 16, 217–225.Google Scholar
Vogel, H. P. (1979) Fertility and sibship size in a psychiatric patient population. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 60, 483–503.Google Scholar
Wyatt, R. J., Alexander, R., Egan, M., et al (1988) Schizophrenia, just the facts: what we know, how well do we know it? Schizophrenia Research, 1, 3–18.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.