PFROPFSCHIZOPHRENIE REVISITED - SCHIZOPHRENIA IN PEOPLE WITH MILD LEARNING-DISABILITY

Background It is reported that people with mild learning disability ha ve a higher point prevalence of schizophrenia than the normal populati on, the reasons for which are unclear. Method Thirty-nine subjects wit h mild learning disability and schizophrenia, 34 control subjects with schizophrenia and 28 control subjects with mild learning disability w ere seen. Interviews with relatives and carers were also conducted. As sessments were made oi clinical variables, psychopathology, neurologic al 'soft' signs, IQ, memory and family history Blood was taken for kar yotypic analysis from comorbid subjects. Results The comorbid group ha d more negative symptoms, episodic memory deficits, soft neurological signs, epilepsy and receive more community supports than control subje cts with schizophrenia. Comorbid subjects had a tendency to belong to multiply affected families and show high rates of chromosomal variants on routine karyotypic testing. Conclusions Future work on the general ity of schizophrenia should include people with premorbid learning dis ability, as a discrete subtype from whom valuable genetic aetiological clues may be obtained.