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Schizophrenia runs in families. There have been investigations to demonstrate the extent to which genetic similarity between family members is associated with the likelihood of both developing schizophrenia. There is a relationship between the degree of genetic similarity and the shared risk of schizophrenia.
Gottesman carried out a meta-analysis to investigate family history of schizophrenia. He reviewed 40 studies and found a concordance rate of 48% for monozygotic (mz) twins (identical) and 17% for dizygotic (dz) twins (fraternal). This suggests that if one identical twin has schizophrenia, there is a 48% chance that the other twin will also have it. This is evidence that the higher the degree of genetic relativeness, the higher the risk of getting schizophrenia.
Rosenthal conducted a case study on identical female quadruplets to see whether schizophrenia is genetically inherited. They found that all four triplets developed schizophrenia, though they differed at the age that this happened as well as the symptoms they exhibited. They were known as the Genain quadruplets.
This supports the idea that schizophrenia is caused by a large genetic component. However, the girls also had a terrible upbringing and were neglected by their mother and father, who both showed clear signs of instability. This suggests that the quadruplet's environment also played a large part in their development of schizophrenia, something that is not considered in the genetic research.
This supports the idea that schizophrenia is caused by a large genetic component. However, the girls also had a terrible upbringing and were neglected by their mother and father, who both showed clear signs of instability. This suggests that the quadruplet's environment also played a large part in their development of schizophrenia, something that is not considered in the genetic research.
In Gottesman's (1991) meta-analysis, concordance rates were calculated between schizophrenics and their family members. He showed this in a graph. He found that the probability that an individual will have schizophrenia is based on their genetic likeness to the person already diagnosed. The results strongly suggest that schizophrenia has some genetic basis as there is a strong connection between the degree of relatedness and concordance rates of schizophrenia.
He found that the more genetics shared, the higher the risk of developing schizophrenia.
He found that the more genetics shared, the higher the risk of developing schizophrenia.