J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2003 May;42(3):314-321.

Similarities of Clinical Manifestations in Sibling Patients with Psychotic Disorder

• Joo YH
• Ahn JY
• Kim JH
• Kim YS

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To explore the possibilities of finding a heritable phenotype(s) in patients with psychosis, we examined the similarities of clinical variables between psychotic sibling patients who share the half of genetic information.
METHODS
We recruited a group of sibling patients, whose diagnoses were schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar disorder and confirmed the diagnosis using SCID-RV(Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, Research Version). Using 30 sets of sibling patients, we examined concordances or similarities of diagnosis, diagnostic subtypes, clinical symptoms, and longitudinal outcomes.
RESULTS
There were significant concordances in terms of age of onset, auditory hallucination persisted for more than 7 years, general level of functioning. No significant similarities or concordances were found in diagnosis, diagnostic subtypes, delusion, negative symptom, and thought disorder between sibling patients.
CONCLUSION
Above mentioned similarities have the possibilities of genetically determined phenotypes that could be used in the future genetic studies. Concordance of hallucination persisted for more than 7 years, not the presence or absence of auditory hallucination between sibling patients suggests that it is more important to examine longitudinal patterns of symptoms than to merely examine the presence of symptoms at specific cross-sectional time points in terms of genetic studies.

Keyword

Psychosis; Sibling patients; Diagnosis similarities; Symptom similarities

MeSH Terms

Age of Onset
Bipolar Disorder
Delusions
Diagnosis
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Hallucinations
Humans
Phenotype
Psychotic Disorders*
Schizophrenia
Siblings*