Genetics, environment and psychopathology / editors, Sarnoff A. Mednick [and others].
- Date:
- 1974
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Genetics, environment and psychopathology / editors, Sarnoff A. Mednick [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Research on etiology of schizophrenia 15 Problems A long-term longitudinal study of a relatively large sample faces certain problems, the chief problem being successfully following the subjects. [. . .] An additional problem of such a long-term study is the potential loss of key personnel. [. . .] The fact that the high-risk children have at least one parent schizo¬ phrenic makes it difficult to consider their family rearing conditions as representative. However, since some portion of these children will have been raised by nonschizophrenic adoptive or foster parents or institutions, we can turn this situation to our advantage by comparison of psychiatric outcome as a function of differential family rearing conditions (Higgins, 1966). An additional difficulty which plagues longitudinal research is the danger that 20 years later one is stuck with what could prove to be dated and trivial data. [. ..] Cross-sectional high-risk-group research We have stressed the longitudinal application of the high-risk-group method. It should also be pointed out that in situations in which longitudinal research is infeasible, the high-risk group may be studied cross-sectionally. [...] We very carefully matched the high-risk group with a control group (no psychiatric admission in parents or grandparents) in¬ dividual for individual on age, sex, father's occupational status, rural-urban residence, years of formal education, and institutional versus family rearing conditions. To the extent that the matching variables are relevant, differences between the high- and low-risk groups may relate to factors predisposing to mental illness, including schizophrenia. [. . .] Why research on the etiology of schizophrenia is exceptionally difficult and how the high-risk-group method may be of use We have severely criticized research into primary etiology based on](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18032618_0032.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
