BACKGROUND FACTORS IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOAFFECTIVE DISORDER AS COMPARED WITH PATIENTS WITH DIABETES AND HEALTHY-INDIVIDUALS

Family history and psychosocial background factors were studied in mar ried patients with a DSM-III diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder (n = 17, partners n = 16), married patients with diabetes (n = 10, partne rs n = 10) and married healthy individuals (n = 8, partners n = 8), Th e two latter groups were comparison control groups matched for gender and age to the patients with schizoaffective disorder. Affective disor der, not particularly schizoaffective disorder, was more common in fir st- and tended to be more common in second-degree relatives of patient s with schizoaffective disorder as compared with controls. Poor parent al relations, especially to the father, during the formative years wer e prominent in patients with schizoaffective disorder as compared with the controls. The same patients also more often than others gave a re port of sexual encroachment, inside or outside the family, and corpora l punishment during the growing-up years.