Family history of autoimmune diseases in psychosis

https://doi.org/10.1016/0920-9964(95)00045-3Get rights and content

Abstract

The mothers of 101 psychotic patients and 116 normal controls were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire designed to determine the presence or absence of autoimmune disorders in first degree relatives of the probands. Thyrotoxicosis and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were significantly more common in the relatives of the psychotic patients than in the control relatives; in particular thyrotoxicosis was more frequent in the mothers of patients (11%) than the mothers of controls (2.6%). None of the examined characteristics of the patients, including RDC-diagnosis, family history of psychosis, age at onset of psychosis and winter birth, was predictive of thyrotoxicosis- and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in relatives.

References (59)

  • C.E. Barr et al.

    Exposure to influenza epidemics during gestation and adult schizophrenia: A 4-year study

    Arch. Gen. Psych.

    (1990)
  • E.D. Bartels

    Heredity in Graves' Disease

    (1941)
  • P. Bebbington et al.

    Life events and psychosis. Initial results from the Camberwell Collaborative Psychosis Study

    Br. J. Psychiatry

    (1993)
  • T.N. Bradbury et al.

    Season of birth in schizophrenia: A review of the evidence, methodology and etiology

    Psych. Bull.

    (1985)
  • M. Carter et al.

    Possible biological advantages among schizophrenic' relatives

    Br. J. Psych.

    (1971)
  • C.L. Cazzullo et al.

    The leucocyte antigenic system HLA as a possible genetic marker of schizophrenia

    Br. J. Psych.

    (1974)
  • F. Chiappelli

    The ‘Stress Analogy’, in the context of psychoneuroimmunology

    Schizophr. Bull.

    (1988)
  • C.E. Coffey et al.

    T-lymphocytes in schizophrenia

    Biol. Psych.

    (1983)
  • R.R. Crowe et al.

    HLA antigens and schizophrenia

    Arch. Gen. Psych.

    (1979)
  • J. Dean et al.

    Epi Info version 5.01a

    (1991)
  • F.M. Delange

    Relation of thyroid hormones to human brain development

  • L.E. DeLisi et al.

    Quantitative determination of immunoglobulins in CSF and plasma of chronic schizophrenic patients

    Br. J. Psych.

    (1981)
  • L.E. DeLisi et al.

    Deficient natural killer cell (NK) activity and macrophage functioning in schizophrenic patients

    J. Neur. Trans.

    (1983)
  • L.E. DeLisi et al.

    Lymphocyte subpopulations in schizophrenic patients

    Biol. Psych.

    (1982)
  • L. Eaves et al.

    Genetics, Immunology and Virology

    Schizophr. Bull.

    (1988)
  • R. Ganguli et al.

    Clinical and laboratory evidence of autoimmunity in acute schizophrenia

    Ann. NY Acad. Sci.

    (1987)
  • R. Ganguli et al.

    Immune abnormalities in schizophrenia: evidence for the autoimmune hypothesis

    Harvard Rev. Psychiatry

    (1994)
  • J. Huxley et al.

    Schizophrenia as a genetic morphism

    Nature

    (1964)
  • P.B. Jones et al.

    Premorbid social underachievement in schizophrenia. Results from the Camberwell Collaborative Psychosis Study

    Br. J. Psych.

    (1993)
  • Cited by (77)

    • Smell and Autoimmunity-State of the Art

      2019, Mosaic of Autoimmunity: The Novel Factors of Autoimmune Diseases
    • Abnormal immune system development and function in schizophrenia helps reconcile diverse findings and suggests new treatment and prevention strategies

      2015, Brain Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      In a population-based study using personal and family data from 7704 Danish psychiatric patients with schizophrenia, a personal history of auto-immune disease in patients or their family members was associated with a 45% increased risk for schizophrenia, and schizophrenia in turn was associated with a 50% elevated prevalence of autoimmune diseases compared with the general population (Eaton et al., 2006), a finding that has been replicated in recent, larger studies (Benros et al., 2011, 2014b; Eaton et al., 2010). In addition, elevated rates of numerous auto-immune disorders have been found among the relatives of patients with schizophrenia, with especially high rates for type 1 diabetes and thyrotoxicosis (Eaton et al., 2006; Gilvarry et al., 1996; Wright et al., 1996). Considerable evidence exists for the heritability of both schizophrenia and many autoimmune diseases (Cho and Gregersen, 2011; Sullivan et al., 2003); interestingly, data from recent genome-wide studies have associated both schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases with a gene family, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), that is crucially involved in immune function and autoimmunity.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text