Fertility of the Sibs of Schizophrenic Patients
CAROL BUCK M.D., Ph.D., D.P.H.1,
G. EDGAR HOBBS M.D., M.P.H., F.R.C.P.(C.)2,
HELEN SIMPSON 3, and
JAMES M. WANKLIN Ph.D.4
1 Professor and Chairman, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
2 Honorary Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario, Chief of Service of Psychiatry, Westminster Hospital, London, Ontario, Canada
3 Research Associate, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
4 Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
This investigation has provided evidence against the hypothesis that heterozygous carriers of a schizophrenic gene have a reproductive advantage through enhanced fertility. An advantage arising from lower mortality between birth and the end of the reproductive period was not investigated, but should be examined before we search for other explanations of the apparently stable polymorphism of schizophrenia.
Submitted on January 2, 1975
