Show Inherited A study of adoptive children whose natural parents displayed schizophrenic disorders has shown evidence various forms of may be PAUL H. of psychiatry at the diversity of Utah Medical said the study supports research conducted over the past ten years that shows genetic factors are sufficient to produce some forms of the Prior to those many American psychiatrists felt schizophrenia was directly caused by psychological factors in the and four other psychiatrists independently concluded that individuals adopted in infancy would be the best models to study in trying to find a genetic link to The parents who provide the genes are different from the parents who provide the psychological environment for adoptive THE FIVE psychiatrists Seymour S. David Fini and Joseph Welner-joined forces in 1963 and picked Denmark for the site of their That country maintains extensive records on all persons treated institutionally for mental illness and those involved in legal such as were given access to those closed records and were able to come up with names of Copenhagen residents who were adopted by we found the names of the natural parents of those DENMARK'S Institute of Human Genetics found files on of those parents and their adopted away offspring who had been institutionalized for treatment of mental Each of their medical records were and 79 natural parent's who showed symptoms of schizophrenic disorders were The psychiatric team then proceeded to interview the away offspring of those contacted the and asked them to participate in a two-day health Only five percent The remainder underwent psychological testing and other extensive When alt the data was collected and the researchers found that the evidence definitely pointed to a genetic link between illness in the natural parents and their offspring who had been adopted into families with normal environmental THIS was by the increased rate of schizophrenia among the adopted away The research team then looked at 30 adopted children who had normal natural parents but who had been reared by adoptive The results showed that those children were no more psychologically ill than a control group of subjects whose natural and adoptive parents were psychologically IN ANOTHER the psychiatrists examined the biological and adoptive relatives of adult schizophrenics who had been adopted in infancy and a group of healthy adults who also had been adopted as FOUND a f increase of among the tives of viewed the there was no evidence of These studies a tic relationship sons suffering derline chronic could be of ortance because borderline between five iK-percent of the hM honored for his American which the Prim It is the only award given by the tion to its lf we can get at the causes of then we should hopefl able to develop the mS more effectively disease's various |