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The article presents a study on the psychiatric illness of among paternal and maternal relatives of poor prognosis schizophrenics. In this study, family histories on second and third degree family members were obtained as a part of a blind family study of good and poor prognosis schizophrenia. It has considered the participation of about 25 poor prognosis families as its focus on the study. The study has showed that only unilateral pairs of ill relatives are noted if highly restrictive criteria are used, favoring a dominant gene hypothesis.

The article cites a study that aims to examine the morbid risks for affective disorder, alcoholism, and sociopathy in first degree relatives, and determine whether the data support the concept of separate illnesses within the broad rubric of alcoholism or the concept of a different expression of the same illness between the sexes. Subjects of the study consists of 259 alcoholic probands. Morbidity risks for first degree relatives of male and female probands were calculated separately for alcoholism, for depression, and for sociopathy in each of the diagnostic groups of primary alcoholism, depression-alcoholism, and sociopathy-alcoholism. Results showed an inverse relationship between alcoholism and depression in the first degree family members.

The article presents a study regarding the genetic findings and methodological considerations in manic depressive disease. It examines a group of manic probands with the aim of better understanding the question of genetic mode of transmission and the probability of heterogeneity within a family with at least one manic proband. Some evidence pertaining to X-linked dominant transmission in manic depressive disease and a method to determine the link between the second genetic factor with a known genetic marker are discussed.

The article discusses the results of a study that examined the sex difference in morbid risk in first degree relatives of unipolar and bipolar probands. After conducting the analysis for morbid risk of effective illness in parents, siblings, and children of probands who were separated by age, sex, and whether bipolar or unipolar, it has been found that there are significant differences in parental morbid risks between younger and older onset probands. Brothers of female probands in the bipolar group were found to have lower morbid risk than sisters.

The article presents a study of association and linkage of ABO blood types in primary affective disorder. In this study, the frequency of ABO blood types of a group of 65 patients diagnosed as having primary affective disorder was compared with a selected group of 65 controls, who were members of the same families as the patients. Results concluded that there was no difference in distribution of blood types between primary affective disorder group as a whole and the control group. However, B type blood occurred with somewhat greater frequency in the primary affective disorder patients who had a positive family history of affective disorder in a first degree relative.

The article focuses on sex differences and alcoholism in primary affective disorder. Further material has showed a familial relationship between alcoholism and a number of other psychiatric illnesses, a relationship that was only seen in male relatives. Affective disorder is seen more frequently in females than males. This inequality seems not to be accounted for by alcoholism in the males. The author also presented information concerning the risk of affective disorder for siblings of the number of probands with a positive family history of afffective disorder.

The article discusses the comparative study between depression spectrum disease and pure depressive disease. The study analyzes the two methodological issues concerning morbid risks period raised by J. Galdi. Morbid risk is an estimate of the probability that a relative will develop the disease in question at some time or another during life if the patient survives the period of risk for the disease. The study evaluates the data from a large family study of 100 rigorously diagnosed depressive probands. The study showed that familial alcoholism and sociopathy is significantly greater in early on-set probands than in late-onset probands. Affective disorder in families of early-onset probands is observed to be higher in female.

A letter to the editor in response to the article "Can Antidepressants Cause Mania and Worsen the Course of Affective Illness" by Thomas A. Wehr and Frederick K. Goodwin in the 1987 issue is presented.

The article presents a study that examines the influence of parental alcoholism or affective disorder on the characteristics of alcoholism in probands, progeny and siblings. The researchers selected the population of 156 male and 103 female alcoholics in 1967 and 1968, who were all in-patients of a psychiatric hospital. Separate analyses were conducted on male and female probands, which were classified into two groups, including those with alcoholism in either parent compared with those without alcoholism, and those probands with a parent diagnosed as affective disorder compared with those without the history. Findings showed that affective disorder or alcoholism in parents of alcoholic probands had less influence on the clinical variables of the illness of the proband.

The article focuses on the study which aims to measure the difference of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) lithium concentration between manic and nonmanic patients when both are injected with a single dose of the lithium ion. The determination may allegedly help to explain the specificity for manic disease and the increased tolerance which these patients have for the toxic effects. To test, the psychiatric in-patients at Renard Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, aging between 19 and 65 were taken as subjects. After studying them, these patients were then given milliequivalents of lithium orally. As the effect of the drugs on them was analyzed, it was revealed that there is no significant difference in the CSF lithium concentration in manic patients and non-manic psychiatric control patients.