AUTOANTIBODIES TO DNA IN MULTICASE FAMILIES WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

In an attempt to define the autoimmune status of members of multicase families with schizophrenia, sera of both patients and healthy relativ es from 28 such cases were tested for antinuclear antibodies, anti-dou ble-strandedDNA, and anti-single-strandedDNA autoantibodies. These aut oantibodies were significantly more frequent in both schizophrenic pat ients and healthy relatives than in normal subjects. Immunoglobulin (I g) M anti-DNA antibodies were more common in patients, whereas in heal thy relatives, IgG anti-DNA antibodies were more common. No significan t differences were found between schizophrenic patients and their heal thy relatives. The data indicate that an autoimmune process may be inv olved in the etiology of a subset of patients with schizophrenia.