Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:496-502
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Personality disorder in the families of depressed, schizophrenic, and never-ill probands
WH Coryell and M Zimmerman
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242.
In a blind family study of 176 probands with nonpsychotic major depression,
psychotic major depression, schizophrenia, or no history of DSM-III
disorders, only the relatives of depressed probands with mood- incongruent
psychotic features had a risk for personality disorders higher than that
for the relatives of never-ill probands. The authors did not find a high
rate of borderline personality in relatives of depressed probands or of
schizotypal personality disorder in relatives of probands with
schizophrenia or any psychosis. However, depressed probands with normal
dexamethasone test results had a significantly higher familial loading for
the DSM-III cluster of histrionic, antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic
personality disorders.
