Positive and Negative Symptoms

Abstract

The authors assessed the relevance of clinical symptoms to genetic research in schizophrenia in the nuclear families of 65 chronic schizophrenic probands. The morbidity risk for schizophrenia and schizotypal personality (a 'spectrum' disorder) was markedly reduced in first-degree relatives of probands with predominant negative symptoms, as compared with relatives of probands with other symptom patterns. The data support the notion that negative-symptom schizophrenia has an attenuated genetic component.