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Irma Weinberg's 1928 paper "on the problem of the determination of heredity prognosis: The risk in the cousins of schizophrenics".

Authors :
Kendler KS
Klee A
Engstrom EJ
Source :
American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics [Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet] 2023 Oct-Dec; Vol. 192 (7-8), pp. 105-112. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Apr 17.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

Irma Weinberg, a German-Jewish Neuropsychiatrist/Physician, authored the fourth report from the German Research Institute for Psychiatry in Munich examining the risk for dementia praecox (DP) in particular relatives of DP probands, here first-cousins. She examined 977 cousins of 54 DP probands and found a best-estimate risk of 1.4%. She conducted within-study analyses, showing a much higher risk for DP in the siblings than cousins of DP probands. She studied DP-related personalities showing a familial link between these conditions and risk for DP. She demonstrated that the risk for DP in cousins was impacted substantially by the distribution, in ancestors, of psychosis and personality abnormalities. After completing work on this article, Weinberg worked in private practice in Frankfurt, emigrating to the Netherlands in 1934, where she worked at a Jewish psychiatric hospital. In 1943, German occupiers evacuated the hospital, transporting the patients and staff, either directly to Auschwitz or, like Weinberg, to the Westerbork transit camp. On September 4, 1944, Dr. Weinberg was transported to Theresienstadt and soon thereafter to Auschwitz, where she was murdered at the age of 53. Her history raises painful questions about the relationship between genetic studies of psychiatric illness in prewar Germany and the Holocaust.<br /> (© 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1552-485X
Volume :
192
Issue :
7-8
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
37066487
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.b.32937