[Reproduction among the mentally ill]. / O reproduktivnosti psikhicheski bol'nykh

The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the reproductiveness fertility and familial position of 2035 mental patients and 5358 normal females. It was possible to demonstrate a general drop during the past several years in the fertility, especially in the patients. The index of fertility and brutto-coefficient of reproductiveness in the group of patients is equal to 30-70% from the level of normal reproductiveness. However, in some forms of pathology (in patients with periodic schizophrenia) the level of reproductiveness falls more slowly than in the general population. It has been established that more than half of the children of schizophrenic patients (50.9%) are born after the onset of the disease. The level of fertility and the number of children or normals depends upon social factors (educational census, family budget). In mental patients these indices depend upon the degree of malignancy and the age of the onset of the pathological process.