NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE DIMENSIONS OF SCHIZOTYPAL PERSONALITY-DISORDER

The positive (perceptual-cognitive) and negative (social-interpersonal ) dimensions of schizotypal personality traits were examined in biolog ical relatives of individuals with Axis I disorder. The subjects were young adult offspring from three contrasting parental groups, includin g schizophrenic disorder, affective disorder, and normal controls. Cog nitive correlates, including digit span (presumed to assess working me mory) and P3 amplitudes, were also examined, Preliminary results showe d that positive and negative dimensions were distinguished by differen t prevalence patterns in the offspring subjects, and by a different pa ttern of correlations with cognitive measures, Negative dimensions wer e more frequent in offspring from the schizophrenic parental group tha n in the offspring from affective disorder and normal control parental groups, Digits forward and backward, and P3 amplitude decrements, cha racterized a subset of offspring with negative features from the schiz ophrenic parental group, Positive dimensions did not differ between th e psychiatric parental groups, and did not covary with digit span or P 3 amplitude assessments, These results support the view that positive and negative dimensions may reflect separable pathophysiologic process es.