A controlled family study of chronic psychoses. Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Two hundred thirty-seven relatives of 48 patients with chronic psychosis, diagnosed as either schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, along with 380 relatives of psychiatrically normal controls, were studied using systematic diagnostic interviews, information from relatives, and review of medical records where appropriate. A variety of nonbipolar psychotic disorders was found in the relatives of the patients. Comparing relatives of patients with schizophrenia with relatives of patients with schizoaffective disorder, there was no tendency for schizoaffective diagnosis or acute psychoses to aggregate separately from schizophrenia. Increased incidence of bipolar disorder was found in relatives of patients with schizoaffective disorder but not in relatives of patients with schizophrenia. Incidence of major affective disorder (bipolar and unipolar) was increased in relatives of probands with both types of psychoses. If we subdivide the ill probands according to whether or not they had a history of substance abuse, relatives of probands with substance abuse had greater frequency of affective disorder and substance abuse, but there were not significant differences in the number of relatives with nonbipolar psychoses.

Characteristics of patients with serious suicidal intentions who ultimately commit suicide.

Patients in a long-term follow-up study who had made a serious suicide threat or attempt before admission were further studied to determine if there were characteristics that discriminated between those who ultimately committed suicide and those who did not. The results showed that patients who committed suicide were more likely to have a DSM-III axis I diagnosis, to be male, and to be discharged against medical advice. Those alive at follow-up were more likely to have a borderline personality disorder, to be female, impulsive, and self-mutilating, to be discharged with medical advice, and to have a healthier postdischarge course.

Herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus antibody titres in sera from schizophrenic patients.

Serum antibody titres to herpes-simplex (HSV-1, 2), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Epstein-Barr virus capsid antigen (EBV-VCA) were determined in 38 unrelated chronic schizophrenic patients, 11 nuclear families with at least 2 schizophrenic members, and 2 control groups. The distributions of antibody titres to herpes simplex and cytomegalovirus were similar among all groups. Patients had higher anti-EBV-VCA titres than non-hospitalized controls; however, hospital staff members in contact with the patients also had significantly higher antibody titres to EBV-VCA. Antibodies to EBV early antigen (EBV-EA) were also determined for 27 unrelated patients and 24 mental hospital employees. The schizophrenic patients had significantly higher antibody titres to EBV-EA than the hospital worker control group. These data do not support the hypothesis that herpes viruses are associated with the aetiology of schizophrenia. Although elevated anti-EBV early antigen titres may suggest persistent active EBV infection, it is unlikely to be related to the aetiology of the disorder, since discordance for EBV seropositivity was present among sibling pairs concordant for schizophrenia.

Discriminating characteristics of suicides. Chestnut Lodge follow-up sample including patients with affective disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Diagnostic, demographic, and outcome profiles were compared between psychiatric inpatients and former inpatients who ultimately committed suicide and those who did not. Results showed that the suicide group contained a greater preponderance of males and patients suffering from schizoaffective disorder or unipolar depression, and comparatively fewer patients with borderline personality disorder. The suicide group also had histories or symptoms indicative of affective difficulties, and premorbidly had achieved a higher IQ and higher levels of socioeconomic functioning. They also demonstrated higher levels of psychopathology on admission and their post-hospitalization courses were characterized by lower levels of functioning. The risk of suicide thus appeared to be correlated to illness virulence and to the magnitude of the loss of healthy functioning.

DNA strand breaking and rejoining in response to ultraviolet light in normal human and xeroderma pigmentosum cells.

We describe a reproducible technique for measuring DNA strand breaking and rejoining in cells after treatment with U.V.-light. Results obtained with normal human cells, xeroderma pigmentosum cells (XP, complementation group A) and XP variant cells suggest that all three of these cell-types can carry out single-strand incision with equal rapidity. However, the breaks so induced appeared to be only slowly rejoined in the XP variant cells and rejoined not at all in XP complementation group A cells. Furthermore, parental strand rejoining was inhibited by caffeine in XP variant cells but not in normal cells.

Repair by human cells of adenovirus-2 damaged by psoralen plus near ultraviolet light treatment.

Adenovirus-2 is damaged by treatment with psoralen plus near-ultraviolet (UV) light is shown by reduced ability to infect human fibroblasts. The apparent sensitivity of the virus to this treatment depended upon the strain of cells used. The virus was 3-4 times more sensitive to the treatment when infecting xeroderma pigmentosum (XP complementation groups A or D) fibroblasts than when infecting normal fibroblasts. DNA extracted from virus preparations that had undergone such treatment was analyzed for treatment-induced crosslinks by gel electrophoresis and sedimentation in alkaline sucrose gradients. The fraction of adenovirus DNA molecules remaining non-crosslinked after treatment was found to correlate with the survival of the virus in normal fibroblasts. This result showed that the psoralen plus near-UV treatment gave rise to non-crosslink lesions (presumably psoralen-DNA mono-adducts), that were repairable by normal but not by XP fibroblasts, and suggested the possibility that normal fibroblasts cannot repair this type of crosslink in the DNA of an infecting adenovirion.