Elevated Levels of Schizotypal Features in Parents of Patients With a Family History of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

Abstract

There is some evidence that schizotypal traits are related to a genetic or familial liability to develop schizophrenia. However, it is unclear whether the number of schizotypal traits is elevated in parents of schizophrenia patients compared with controls. This study used the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire to investigate the difference in number of schizotypal traits between both parents of 36 patients with schizophrenia (n = 72 persons) and 26 healthy married control couples (n = 52 persons). Parents of patients had a lower score on the positive dimension of schizotypy than healthy controls. There was no difference on the negative or disorganization dimension between groups. The difference on the positive dimension might have been caused by a difference in response style between parents of patients and controls due to the fact that parents are more familiar with schizophrenia than controls. Of interest, parents with a family history of schizophrenia spectrum disorders had more positive and negative schizotypal traits than parents without a family history of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Because these two groups of parents differ in only genetic risk, not familiarity with schizophrenia, results suggest that the negative and positive dimension of schizotypy are related to a familial or genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Movement disorders are associated with schizotypy in unaffected siblings of patients with non-affective psychosis

“…Moreover, it has been pointed out that relatives respond more defensively as they fear the discovery of schizotypal phenomena (Grove et al 1991 ;Lenzenweger, 1993). Our results on schizotypy are (partially) consistent with previous studies reporting elevated scores in first-degree relatives of positive (Laurent et al 2000 ;Vollema et al 2002 ;Appels et al 2004 ;Delawalla et al 2006) and negative schizotypal symptoms (Kendler et al 1996 ;Laurent et al 2000 ;Calkins et al 2004 ;Delawalla et al 2006), but not for disorganized traits.…”

Schizotypy and psychosis-like experiences from recreational cannabis in a non-clinical sample

“…Schizotypal trait has been reported to be higher in relatives of patients with schizophrenia (e.g. Appels et al 2004), may share some of the same risk genetic loci as schizophrenia (Fanous et al 2007) and may also lead to increased cognitive deficits in relatives of patients with schizophrenia (Diwadkar et al 2006). Schizotypy is characterized by attenuated psychotic symptoms that comprise both positive (unusual beliefs and perceptual experiences) and negative (social anxiety and withdrawal) features.…”

Screening schizotypal personality disorder for detection of clinical high risk of psychosis in Chinese mental health services

“…Research has demonstrated that SPD is more prevalent in biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia (Appels et al, 2004;Fogelson et al, 1999;Joober et al, 2005). Twin studies have suggested moderate heritability Torgersen et al, 2000) and a genetic correlation has been found using gene linkage analysis (Ohi et al, 2012).…”