Previous studies by the author and his collaborators, Rosenthal, Wender,
Schulsinger, and Jacobsen, of the biological and adoptive relatives of
schizophrenic adoptees are reviewed in conjunction with more recent studies
by Spitzer and Endicott and by Kendler, Gruenberg, and Strauss, who
independently made operational diagnoses using the Research Diagnostic
Criteria or DSM-III specifications, both of which showed good agreement
with the authors' global diagnoses based on the descriptions in DSM-II.
Both the DSM-III diagnoses and the authors' global diagnoses found a highly
significant concentration of chronic, latent, and uncertain schizophrenia
or schizotypal personality disorder in the biological relatives of adoptees
who developed chronic schizophrenia. A response is made to recent
criticisms published in this journal by Lidz and Blatt and by Abrams and
Taylor.Abstract Teaser