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The Contribution of Twin Studies

James R. Stabenau, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1968;18(4):458-463.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

SCHIZOPHRENIA and other disordered emotional states did not come under scientific scrutiny until early in the 20th century. With the advent of mendelian genetics in 1865 came the promise that many human traits previously unaccounted for might be explained on the basis of genetic inheritance. The Danish biologist, Johannsen, introduced the concept that the phenotype or the external appearance of an organism represented the result of the interplay of the genotype, the total sum of genes in the organism, and the environment in which the organism found itself.¹ Galton in 1876 was impressed with the idea that the nurture-nature problem might be resolved through the study of twins.² In respect to mental illness, European investigators have tended toward acceptance of the nature side of what appeared as a dialectical issue, in that mental illness was seen as primarily genetically . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Bethesda, Md

From the Section on Twin and Sibling Studies, Adult Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Oct 11, 1967.

Read before the Combined Clinical Staff Meeting, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, Nov 17, 1966.

Reprint requests to Bldg 10, Room 2S 239, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md 20014.

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