Schizotypal symptoms in the relatives of schizophrenia patients: An empirical analysis of the factor structure

This study examined the nature of schizotypal symptoms in the relatives of schizophrenia patients and investigated phenomenological differences in sym ptomatology manifested by a familial sample and a clinical sample of person ality disorder patients. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test mod els of DSM-III-R schizotypal symptoms in the first degree relatives (n = 17 2) of schizophrenia patients. A multisample analysis was conducted to deter mine whether the same model adequately described the schizotypal symptoms r ated in the relatives of schizophrenia patients and in clinically selected personality disorder patients, The results indicated that a three-factor mo del consisting of cognitive/perceptual, interpersonal, and disorganization factors yielded the best fit to the data from the relatives of schizophreni a patients, but that this model did not adequately describe both the relati ves of schizophrenia patients and personality disorder patients. These find ings indicate that the structure of schizotypal symptoms in the relatives o f schizophrenia patients is similar to the three-factor model of schizophre nia symptoms often reported, but not the same as the structure of schizotyp al symptoms in clinically selected personality disorder patients.