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The Finnish Adoptive Family Study of Schizophrenia

Possible Joint Effects of Genetic Vulnerability and Family Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Pekka Tienari
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu
Ilpo Lahti
Affiliation:
University of Turku, Turku
Anneli Sorri
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu
Mikko Naarala
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu
Juha Moring
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu
Karl-Erik Wahlberg
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oulu, Oulu

Extract

In a study of children adopted at an early age, discrimination between hereditary and family dynamic factors is possible. The biological parents have given the child their genetic characteristics and sometimes the very early environment, while the adoptive parents have provided the more permanent family environment and rearing. The major goal of the Finnish adoptive family study was to re-assess the genetic contributions to schizophrenia and to provide further measures of the adoptive family rearing environment. In other words, we were interested in the joint effects of genetic and family environmental variables and in their possible contribution to both the psychopathology and the healthy functioning of adoptees during their development. This approach paid attention to the possibility that a healthy, possibly protective, rearing family environment may reduce the genetic risk. During the course of the study, we also considered whether the direction of the effects between genetic and family environmental factors can be clarified through a prospective, longitudinal study of the adoptees at risk.

Type
II. From the Perspective of Neurobiology and Pharmacotherapy
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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