Showing papers by "Robin M. Murray published in 1989"

Family history and cerebral ventricular enlargement in schizophrenia. A case control study.

Abstract: Ventricular size was measured from CT scans in 48 patients meeting RDC for schizophrenia who had a first-degree relative with a history of treatment for major psychiatric disorder, in 48 age- and sex-matched schizophrenic patients with no such history in first- or second-degree relatives, and in 48 matched, healthy controls. There was no difference in ventricular size between those with and without a positive family history, although both groups showed ventricular enlargement with respect to normal controls. Ventricular enlargement was demonstrated in the subgroup of 23 patients with a family history of schizophrenia, but not in the subgroup of 18 patients with a family history of affective disorder. These observations provide further evidence that schizophrenics with a family history of affective disorder may constitute an aetiologically distinct subgroup.

The impact of molecular genetics on our understanding of the psychoses.

Abstract: Studies demonstrating the linkage to separate chromosomal locations of Alzheimer's disease, manic depression, and schizophrenia require re-evaluation of our ideas of their genetic aetiology. This article reviews the findings, and explores the increasing contribution of the 'new genetics' to our understanding of the organic and functional psychoses.

Schizophrenia Research: Attempting to integrate genetics, neurodevelopment and nosology

Abstract: Recent clinical and biometrical studies strongly support the classical findings of an inherited component in schizophrenia, and are now being used to try to define the phenotype. Linkage studies have generated conflicting data, possibly due to the necessary assumptions that have to be made regarding phenotype definition, the model of inheritance and the degree of penetrance of the supposed gene. Alternative approaches, such as sib-pair analysis overcome some but not all these difficulties, and cytogenetic abnormalities may yet outline regions of the genome for closer scrutiny. The relationship between genes involved in the development of the brain, and the dysplastic features suggested by neuropathologica and neuroimaging studies of the brains of schizophrenics, is one of the most potentially productive areas for research. Elucidation of the nature of the genetic component will help to clarify whether it acts independently or synergistically with the foetal environment in producing the neurodevelopmental ...