Schizotypal Disorder Resources

MedWire News: Childhood trauma and schizotypal dimensions are linked in individuals at high genetic risk for schizophrenia, say scientists in findings that may highlight an interaction between childhood experience and genetic susceptibility.

Previous studies have identified a strong association between childhood trauma and psychotic disorders, explain F Shürhoff, from Pôle Universitaire de Psychiatrie in Créteil, France, and colleagues.

Noting that schizotypy represents a mild imitation of schizophrenia symptoms, the team administered the Diagnostic Interview of Genetic Studies, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) to 67 unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenic probands and 71 unaffected first-degree relatives of bipolar disorder probands.

The average age of the two groups was comparable at 54.2 years and 53.1 years, respectively. Schizophrenia relatives were more likely to be parents of the probands than bipolar disorder relatives, at 80.5% versus 59.2%.

There were no significant differences in average SPQ full scores and in CTQ scores between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder relatives, at 10.2 versus 9.6, and 38.6 versus 39.3, respectively.

There was a significant correlation between CTQ score and SPQ full-score, at an r value of 0.27, which was fully explained by a significant correlation among schizophrenia relatives, at an r value of 0.43. In contrast, there was no significant correlation among bipolar disorder relatives, at an r value of 0.13.

The team notes in the journal Psychological Medicine that the odds ratio for having schizoptypal traits in the presence of childhood trauma was higher in schizophrenia than bipolar disorder relatives, at 3.60 and 1.64, respectively.

They write: "In conclusion, our findings suggest that susceptibility genes specific to schizophrenia may influence response to pathogenic environments.

"It is clear that if a gene's connection to the disorder is conditional on the environment, this will have the natural consequence of diminishing the researchers? capacity to detect the association between the gene and the disorder."