EYE-MOVEMENTS IN SPECTRUM PERSONALITY-DISORDERS - COMPARISON OF COMMUNITY SUBJECTS AND RELATIVES OF SCHIZOPHRENIC-PATIENTS

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to test the specificit y of an association between eye tracking abnormality and schizophrenia spectrum personality symptoms in the family members of schizophrenic patients. The studies of biological markers for genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, which test an association between a biological measu re and schizophrenia spectrum personality symptoms, are constrained, s ince these personality symptoms may lack the specificity for a schizop hrenic phenotype. An association between a biobehavioral measure and t hese personality symptoms in general can easily be false (i.e., not re lated to schizophrenic vulnerability). In contrast, a strong deviant f inding in the relatives of schizophrenic patients with spectrum person ality symptoms, in the presence of a relatively normal finding in spec trum subjects without a known history of schizophrenia, makes the biob ehavioral measure an interesting candidate for such investigations. Me thod: Seventy-five subjects recruited from the community who did not h ave a family history of psychosis completed the study (24 of the 75 ha d significant schizophrenia spectrum personality symptoms). Thirty-two first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients (13 with spectrum sy mptoms) completed the study. Subjects were 18-45 years old and had no DSM-III-R axis I diagnosis. Results: Qualitative smooth pursuit eye mo vement score was significantly worse in relatives with the spectrum sy mptoms than in spectrum subjects without a family history of schizophr enia and the nonspectrum relatives. Schizotypal and schizoid symptoms explained a significant amount of the variance in the eye tracking mea sure in the relatives (31% and 20%, respectively) but not in the commu nity subjects (less than 2%). Relatives of schizophrenic patients with and without the spectrum symptoms had significantly longer antisaccad e latency, in spite of comparable latency for visually guided saccades , than the community subjects. Conclusions: Smooth pursuit abnormality in subjects with schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders is spec ifically associated with a family history of schizophrenia.