Symptom resemblances between schizophrenic probands and their relatives

In an effort to better understand the transmission of schizophrenia, this study compared the symptoms of schizophrenic patients with personality traits of their relatives. Schizophrenic patients (N = 73) were administered the Schedules for the Assessment of Negative and Positive Symptoms. All available relatives (N = 139) were asked to complete the Psychosis Proneness Scales. Correlational analyses of the probands' and relatives' scores on these scales were conducted.;Findings indicated that there were significant resemblances between schizophrenic probands and their relatives on at least two dimensions of schizophrenia-related symptomatology: relatives' levels of social anhedonia, which were associated with patients' levels of social dysfunction; and relatives' levels of magical ideation, which were associated with patients' levels of delusional experience. No significant resemblances were found between perceptual aberrations or physical anhedonia among relatives and schizophrenic symptoms among patients.;In the context of prior reports in the literature, these results suggested that capacities for delusional experience and, significantly but less strongly, for social anhedonia and social dysfunction are transmitted familially and are linked to schizophrenia. Perceptual aberration may be linked to schizophrenia and modestly familial, but some influence apparently related to the emergence or treatment of full-blown schizophrenia seems to have disrupted resemblances between relatives and probands on this dimension. Physical anhedonia may be familial, but not linked to schizophrenia.;These results, if confirmed, have potentially significant implications for several areas of schizophrenia research. They indicate that more relatives than just those with psychoses or schizophrenia-related personality disorders bear personality traits that resemble the symptoms of their relatives with schizophrenia. If familial aggregation is a useful guide to genetic effects, these findings would support the inclusion of relatives in attempts to identify the neurophysiologic basis for schizophrenia.