Background. A population-based prevalent cohort of 150 clinical definite multiple sclerosis (MS) cases (102 women; 48 men) ascertained on January 1, 1977, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was found to have a familial rate of MS as 17.3%. Objectives. To determine the occurrence of familial MS cases and the frequency of MS among the biological relatives of the study cohort. Methods. The search for new fa...

OBJECTIVES It has long been suspected that susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is influenced by genes lying distant to the major histocompatibility complex. This study compares genetic models of AS to assess the most likely mode of inheritance, using recurrence risk ratios in relatives of affected subjects. METHODS Recurrence risk ratios in different degrees of relatives were determ...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid factors (RFs) and antibodies against cyclic citrullinated peptides (CCPs) of IgG, IgA and IgM isotype have been shown to precede disease onset by years. OBJECTIVE To evaluate serological risk markers in first-degree relatives from multicase families in relation to genetic and environmental risk factors. METHODS 51 multicase families consisting of 163 individuals with r...

UNLABELLED Diabetes Mellius Type 1 (DM1) is frequently associated to Autoimmune Thyroid Disease (AITD). The prevalence of AITD among diabetic patients varies between 3 to 50% and the incidence is also big among their family members, when compared to the population in general. OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence of AITD in patients with DM1; to evaluate possible differences concerning the...

Irony is a type of figurative language in which the literal meaning of the expression is the opposite of what the speaker intends to communicate. Even though schizophrenic patients are known as typically impaired in irony comprehension and in the underlying neural functions, to date no one has explored the neural correlates of figurative language comprehension in first-degree relatives of schiz...

BACKGROUND The evidence for increased risk of dementia in relatives of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) remains conflicting. OBJECTIVE To study the risk of cognitive impairment or dementia in first-degree relatives of patients with PD. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a historical cohort study of 1019 first-degree relatives of 162 patients with PD and of 858 relatives of 1...

CONTEXT Smaller brain volumes have consistently been found in patients with schizophrenia, particularly in gray matter and medial temporal lobe structures. Although several studies have investigated brain volumes in nonpsychotic relatives of patients with schizophrenia, results have been inconsistent. OBJECTIVE To determine the magnitude and extent of brain volume differences in first-degree ...

BACKGROUND Neurological soft signs are subtle but observable impairments in motor and sensory functions that are not localized to a specific area of the brain. Neurological soft signs are common in schizophrenia. It has been established that soft signs meet two of five criteria for an endophenotype, namely: association with the illness, and state independence. This review investigated whether s...

Whether avoidant personality disorder symptoms are related to neurocognitive impairments that aggregate in relatives of schizophrenics is unknown. We report the relationship between avoidant personality disorder symptoms and neurocognitive performance in the first-degree relatives of probands with schizophrenia. 367 first-degree relatives of probands with schizophrenia and 245 relatives of comm...

This study investigates the possible relationship between pathological gambling (PG) and potential spectrum disorders including the DSM-IV impulse control disorders (intermittent explosive disorder, kleptomania, pyromania, trichotillomania) and several non-DSM disorders (compulsive buying disorder, compulsive sexual behavior, Internet addiction). PG probands, controls, and their first-degree re...