Impaired intellect and memory: a missing link between genetic risk and schizophrenia?

Abstract

CONTENT: The DSM-IV concept of schizophrenia offers diagnostic reliability but etiologic and pathologic heterogeneity, which probably contributes to the inconsistencies in genetic studies. One solution is to identify intermediate phenotypes, "narrower" constructs of liability, that hypothetically share genetic risk with the disorder. Although a variety of candidate intermediate phenotypes have emerged, few have explicitly quantified the extent of their genetic overlap with schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the net-shared genetic effects between schizophrenia and specific cognitive candidate intermediate phenotypes. DESIGN: Twin and family design. SETTING: Adult psychiatric research cente..