mbmiller at SIRRONALD.WUSTL.EDU (Mike Miller) wrote:
> On Fri, 17 May 1996, Irina Razin wrote:
> > What is known and where I can read about heritability of
> > schizophrenia?
>> Read "Schizophrenia Genesis" by Irving I. Gottesman (1991), Freeman Press.
>> > Like, if it happened in both father's and mother's family (but not to
> > them directly), what would be the chances for children and grandchildren?
>> This is not an easy question. In fact, you should not trust an answer
> based only on the information you've given. Any answer would have to be
> based on the exact pedigree structure AND on some model of transmission.
> We don't know how it's transmitted, so we can't produce a very reliable
> answer. But you'll get some really excellent ideas from Gottesman's book.
They haven't actually gotten married yet, and this genetic problem is
important for their decision.
Father's side: his grandfather's son (from another woman, NOT from his
grandmother) is very seriously ill. The grandfather himself is not
really ill and was very successful in life (was managing a 100 people
company), but in private life he is very annoying and has obsessive
ideas. Both the father in question and his grandfather are half-Jewish
(I heard that it matters).
This grandfather is on the mother's side.
Mother's side: her younger brother got schizoaffective disorder (has not
yet been diagnozed with real schizophrenia), and also her
great-grandfather (mother's grandfather) was ill. The mother herself is
smart and successful academically but is a little strange. She is also
half-Jewish.
The question is, how likely their children are to be affected.
I realize that the choice of model is important, but can't help much.
Ira.
