Reproductive Fitness in Schizophrenia

viewpoints and arguments on contro-versial issues. Articles published in this section may not meet the strict editorial and scientific standards that are applied to major articles in the Bulletin. In addition, the viewpoints expressed in the following articles do not necessarily represent those of the staff or the Editorial Advisory Board of the Bulletin.—The Editors. Recently published data from the Roscommon Family Study show that a parental diagnosis of schizotypal disorder (SPD) has a significant and specific impact on the risk for schizophrenia in siblings of index probands with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The distribution patterns of risks for schizophrenia and SPD in parents were of opposite magni-tude to those of patients ' sib-lings and children. These pat-terns can be predicted from the diminished reproductive fitness of patients with schizophrenia if subjects with SPD belong in the schizophrenia spectrum but have no diminished fitness. We briefly review how the few available data about the distribu-tion of risks for schizophrenia and SPD among relatives of pro-bands with SPD and the data for their marital status, as a tentative index of reproductive fitness, may support this interpretation. There is some indirect evidence that, unlike what is usually re-ported for people with schizo-phrenia, reproductive fitness may not be diminished in SPD. This might partially account for the opposite patterns of distribution of risks for schizophrenia and SPD in families