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International Journal of Social Psychiatry
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*Schizophrenia
*Twins, Triplets, Multiple Births
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Do the Studies On Identical Twins Prove That Schizophrenia Is Genetically Inherited?

Carl Ratner

Humboldt State University

Ten studies on identical twins reared apart are reviewed to determine if they substantiate a genetic component of schizophrenia. These studies have not eliminated likely social causes of schizophrenia in the twins, and therefore the origins of schizophrenia remain unsolved.

Adherents of the theory that schizophrenia is genetically inherited, point to studies on iden tical twins reared apart as verifying their position. These studies have found several pairs of wins concordant for schizophrenia in which the two individuals were brought up apart from each other. Given this social separation, the explanation that is offered for the concordance is that genetic similarities caused the twins both to become schizophrenic. It is proposed here that none of the studies on identical twins rule out social causes of schizophrenia, and that social causes may very well have been operative.

Ten studies have been reported on identical twins reared apart in which at least one twin was schizophrenic. Of the 27 pairs of twins studied, 14 have been concordant for schizophrenia and 13 have been discordant. The following table summarises the findings (from Rosenthal, 1970; Gottesman and Shields, 1972 and Inouye, 1972).

International Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol. 28, No. 3, 175-178 (1982)
DOI: 10.1177/002076408202800302
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