Genetic Aspects of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Since the early years of this century, many studies concerned with the biological and vital statistics aspects of schizophrenia have been conducted based on the definition of this disorder according to the Kraepelin-Bleuler classification. This classification model has four major subtypes of schizophrenia: the catatonic, the paranoid, the hebephrenic, and the simple. There have been many concerns about the definitiveness of this diagnostic scheme, and some of these have been discussed in publications edited by Rosenthal and Kety,¹ Kaplan,² as well as in a monograph by Rosenthal.³ Of particular interest are those aspects that deal with the fording that, while affected family members are more likely to display the same subtype of schizophrenia, there are family constellations in which affected members present more than one subtype. There is also evidence that some individuals, at a particular time, exhibit one subtype of the schizophrenia and, at another point in time, have the clinical picture of one of the other subtypes. Both the finding of differences in subtypes among relatives and the observation of changes in diagnostic subtype in individuals, over a period of time, have been pointed to as evidence that the unified clinical model of schizophrenia is not a viable entity.