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Six WHO Collaborating Centre took part in the study of the antithymic activity of blood sera of patients suffering from schizophrenia. Blood serum specimens from 118 schizophrenic patients and 62 mentally healthy donors were investigated. Statistically significant differences between schizophrenic patients and the controls were found (p < 0.05). It is probable that as with other biological phenomena described in schizophrenia, antithymic activity is one of the biological factors, in combination with other factors, predisposing towards the development of the schizophrenic process.

A study of linkage of bipolar manic-depressive illness to the protan/deutan colorblindness region of the X-chromosome was performed on 16 informative families, in a WHO collaborative study (eight families from Brussels, Six from Bethesda, one each from Basel and Copenhagen). Overall, the series did not support close linkage, but is possibly suggestive of loose linkage. The possibility of genetic heterogeneity of bipolar manic-depressive illness, with one form linked to colorblindness, is considered.