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Is There Really A Split in Schizophrenia?

The Genetic Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

P. McGuffin ,
A. Farmer  and
I. I. Gottesman
P. McGuffin
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, and Department of Psychological Medicine, Kings College Hospital, London
A. Farmer
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London
I. I. Gottesman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Professor of Paediatrics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
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Abstract

Although the clinical presentation and course of schizophrenia is highly variable, it is unclear whether this reflects heterogeneity at an aetiological level. The genetic evidence is reviewed concerning ‘traditional’ clinical subtypes as well as more novel categories derived from multivariate statistical methods and Crow's type I-type II classification. Recent data based on a twin series and reanalysis of older published family material suggest that attempts to divide up schizophrenia have resulted in splits between two or more categories of disorder which occupy different positions on the same continuum of liability. Thus, apparent heterogeneity is more likely to be due to quantitative difference in familial-genetic loading rather than qualitative differences. Similarly, the hypothesis that schizophrenia can be broadly divided into two groups, one genetic and the other non-genetic has little to support it. It seems improbable that any further useful and genetically relevant subdivision of schizophrenia can be effected on purely clinical grounds. Further progress awaits developments in the discovery of endophenotypes and the application of molecular genetic marker strategies.

Type
Lecture
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 150 , Issue 5 , May 1987 , pp. 581 - 592
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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