This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (201)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Bipolar Disorder  • Schizophrenia  • Alert me on articles by topic

The Maudsley Twin Psychosis Series

Alastair G. Cardno, MB, MRCPsych; E. Jane Marshall, MD, MRCPsych; Bina Coid, PhD; Alison M. Macdonald, PhD; Tracy R. Ribchester, BSc; Nadia J. Davies, MB, MRCPsych; Piero Venturi, MD; Lisa A. Jones, BSc; Shôn W. Lewis, MD, FRCPsych; Pak C. Sham, MB, MRCPsych; Irving I. Gottesman, PhD; Anne E. Farmer, MD, MRCPsych; Peter McGuffin, MB, PhD, FRCPsych; Adrianne M. Reveley, MB, MRCPsych; Robin M. Murray, MD, FRCPsych, DSc

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56:162-168.

Background  Previous twin studies have supported a genetic contribution to the major categories of psychotic disorders, but few of these have employed operational diagnostic criteria, and no such study has been based on a sample that included the full range of functional psychotic disorders.

Methods  A total of 224 twin probands (106 monozygotic, 118 dizygotic) with a same-sex co-twin and a lifetime history of psychosis was ascertained from the service-based Maudsley Twin Register in London, England. Research Diagnostic Criteria psychotic diagnoses were made on a lifetime-ever basis. Main-lifetime diagnoses of DSM-III-R and International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision schizophrenia were also made. Probandwise concordance rates and correlations in liability were calculated, and biometrical model fitting applied.

Results  A substantial genetic contribution to variance in liability was confirmed for the major diagnostic categories except Research Diagnostic Criteria depressive psychosis and unspecified functional psychosis, where familial transmission was confirmed, but the relative contribution of genetic and common environmental factors was unclear. Heritability estimates for Research Diagnostic Criteria schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, mania, DSM-III-R schizophrenia, and International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision schizophrenia were all between 82% and 85%. None of the estimates differed significantly from any other.

Conclusions  Heritability estimates for schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and mania were substantial and similar. Population morbid risk estimates were inferred rather than directly measured, but the results were very similar to those from studies where morbid risks were directly estimated.

From the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff (Dr Cardno and Ms Jones); Institute of Psychiatry, London, England (Drs Marshall, Coid, Macdonald, Davies, Farmer, McGuffin, Reveley, Sham, and Murray, and Ms Ribchester); Department of Psychiatric Sciences and Psychological Medicine, University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy (Dr Venturi); Department of Psychiatry, Withington Hospital, Manchester, England (Dr Lewis); and the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (Dr Gottesman).

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

The Dimensional Structure of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales: Factor Identification and Construct Validity
Kwapil et al.
Schizophr Bull 2008;34:444-457.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Gene Expression in the Etiology of Schizophrenia
Bray
Schizophr Bull 2008;34:412-418.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

No Significant Association of 14 Candidate Genes With Schizophrenia in a Large European Ancestry Sample: Implications for Psychiatric Genetics
Sanders et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2008;165:497-506.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Strong evidence that GNB1L is associated with schizophrenia
Williams et al.
Hum Mol Genet 2008;17:555-566.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Higher Risk of Offspring Schizophrenia Following Antenatal Maternal Exposure to Severe Adverse Life Events
Khashan et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008;65:146-152.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Family-Based Association Study of Lithium-Related and Other Candidate Genes in Bipolar Disorder
Perlis et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008;65:53-61.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Thalamic Shape Abnormalities in Individuals with Schizophrenia and Their Nonpsychotic Siblings
Harms et al.
J. Neurosci. 2007;27:13835-13842.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Psychiatric disorder and looked after status
Sekar
Br. J. Psychiatry 2007;191:360-360.
FULL TEXT  

Competing Definitions of Schizophrenia: What Can Be Learned From Polydiagnostic Studies?
Jansson and Parnas
Schizophr Bull 2007;33:1178-1200.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Schizophrenia
Picchioni and Murray
BMJ 2007;335:91-95.
FULL TEXT  

Genetic Susceptibility to Retinopathy of Prematurity
Bizzarro et al.
Pediatrics 2006;118:1858-1863.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Segmental uniparental isodisomy on 5q32-qter in a patient with childhood-onset schizophrenia
Seal et al.
J. Med. Genet. 2006;43:887-892.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Neuropsychological Functioning in Adolescents and Young Adults at Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia and Affective Psychoses: Results from the Harvard and Hillside Adolescent High Risk Studies
Seidman et al.
Schizophr Bull 2006;32:507-524.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

DNA copy-number analysis in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia reveals aberrations in genes involved in glutamate signaling
Wilson et al.
Hum Mol Genet 2006;15:743-749.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Haplotypes at the dystrobrevin binding protein 1 (DTNBP1) gene locus mediate risk for schizophrenia through reduced DTNBP1 expression
Bray et al.
Hum Mol Genet 2005;14:1947-1954.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Predictors of schizophrenia--a review
Maki et al.
Br Med Bull 2005;73-74:1-15.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Indicators of Genetic Liability to Schizophrenia: A Sibling Study of Neuropsychological Performance
Thompson et al.
Schizophr Bull 2005;31:85-96.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

High Concordance of Bipolar I Disorder in a Nationwide Sample of Twins
Kieseppa et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:1814-1821.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Association of Genetic Risks for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder With Specific and Generic Brain Structural Endophenotypes
McDonald et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2004;61:974-984.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Three Potential Susceptibility Loci Shown by a Genome-Wide Scan for Regions Influencing the Age at Onset of Mania
Faraone et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:625-630.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Schizophrenia as a Complex Trait: Evidence From a Meta-analysis of Twin Studies
Sullivan et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2003;60:1187-1192.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Decreased Thalamic Expression of the Homeobox Gene DLX1 in Psychosis
Kromkamp et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2003;60:869-874.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Evidence of susceptibility loci on 4q32 and 16p12 for bipolar disorder
Ekholm et al.
Hum Mol Genet 2003;12:1907-1915.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Heritability of Bipolar Affective Disorder and the Genetic Relationship to Unipolar Depression
McGuffin et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2003;60:497-502.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Fertility of Patients With Schizophrenia, Their Siblings, and the General Population: A Cohort Study From 1950 to 1959 in Finland
Haukka et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2003;160:460-463.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Do Urbanicity and Familial Liability Coparticipate in Causing Psychosis?
van Os et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2003;160:477-482.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hierarchy and Heritability: The Role of Diagnosis and Modeling in Psychiatric Genetics
Kendler
Am. J. Psychiatry 2002;159:515-518.
FULL TEXT  

A Twin Study of Genetic Relationships Between Psychotic Symptoms
Cardno et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2002;159:539-545.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Heritability of Schneider's first-rank symptoms
CARDNO et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2002;180:35-38.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Genome-wide scan in a nationwide study sample of schizophrenia families in Finland reveals susceptibility loci on chromosomes 2q and 5q
Paunio et al.
Hum Mol Genet 2001;10:3037-3048.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Twin Studies of Psychiatric Illness: An Update
Kendler
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58:1005-1014.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Twin study of symptom dimensions in psychoses
CARDNO et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2001;179:39-45.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Kraepelinian Dichotomy: Evidence From Developmental and Neuroimaging Studies
Curtis et al.
J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosi. 2000;12:398-405.
FULL TEXT  

Labour and delivery complications and schizophrenia: Case--control study using contemporaneous labour ward records
BYRNE et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2000;176:531-536.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Structural Brain Abnormalities in Patients With Schizophrenia and Their Healthy Siblings
Staal et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2000;157:416-421.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Genetics of bipolar disorder
Craddock and Jones
J. Med. Genet. 1999;36:585-594.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Risk Factors for Schizophrenia
McGuffin et al.
NEJM 1999;341:370-372.
FULL TEXT  

Science, medicine, and the future: Behaviour and genes
McGuffin and Martin
BMJ 1999;319:37-40.
FULL TEXT