Am J Psychiatry 1993; 150:1363-1367
Copyright © 1993 by American Psychiatric Association
A comparative study of paranoid and schizoid personality disorders
M Fulton and G Winokur
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, College of Medicine.
OBJECTIVE: Family studies have demonstrated a higher rate of schizoid
personality in the families of probands with schizophrenia and a higher
rate of paranoid personality in the families of probands with delusional
disorder. The authors sought to investigate the familial characteristics of
probands with schizoid and paranoid personality disorders and to delineate
the clinical characteristics of the two groups. METHOD: Records of 351
inpatients with discharge diagnoses that included the term "schizoid
personality" or "paranoid personality" were examined to identify patients
who met DSM-III-R criteria for schizoid personality disorder (N = 34) or
paranoid personality disorder (N = 19). Comparisons were made between the
two groups with respect to clinical symptoms, familial characteristics, and
longitudinal course. RESULTS: The authors found that probands with schizoid
personality disorder were hospitalized at an earlier age than probands with
paranoid personality disorder, had more intervention before the index
admission, and had greater morbidity following the index admission. They
also found that descriptors of the two syndromes tended to congregate in
the respective family material, but the differences were not statistically
significant. Differences in the familial prevalence of schizophrenia were
also not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: These familial data do not
support the hypothesis that schizophrenia congregates in the families of
probands with schizoid personality disorder. Possible explanations for this
finding are discussed.
