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Article
June 1984

Cerebral Ventricular Size in the Offspring of Schizophrenic Mothers: A Preliminary Study

Author Affiliations

From the Department of Psychiatry, Psykologisk Institut, Kommunehospitalet (Drs F. Schulsinger, Parnas, H. Schulsinger, Mednick, and Møller and Mr Teasdale), the Department of Radiology, Hvidovre Hospital (Dr Petersen), and the Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Copenhagen (Dr H. Schulsinger), Copenhagen; and the Social Science Research Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (Dr Mednick and Ms Silverton).

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1984;41(6):602-606. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1984.01790170076008
Abstract

• Within a prospective, longitudinal study of offspring of schizophrenic mothers, computed tomographic scan—derived measurements of ventricular size were evaluated for a subsample consisting of schizophrenics, borderline schizophrenics (DSM-III schizotypal), and mentally healthy individuals. Schizophrenics exhibited larger ventricular sizes and borderline schizophrenics smaller ventricular sizes than mentally healthy individuals. Ventricular size correlated with premorbidly obtained obstetric data. These results are interpreted as being consistent with the hypothesis that neurological insult may decompensate schizotypal individuals toward florid schizophrenia.

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