Study of Neurological Soft Signs and Psychopathology in Children of Patients with Schizophrenia and affective Disorder.

INTRODUCTION: Since the 1950s, prospective studies of individuals at heightened risk For future serious psychopathological conditions have been considered a Potentially valuable strategy for studying the origins and development of such Conditions. The high-risk strategy is based on the fact that offspring born to Parents with psychosis are at increased risk for the later development of Psychosis and other forms of psychiatric illness. The risk for a child for developing schizophrenia is 13% if one parent is Affected and 40% if both parents have schizophrenia. In children of bipolar Parent there is 25% chance that the child will have a mood disorder and 50- 75% if both parents have a mood disorder compared to the rates of 1% in the General population for both major mental disorders. Because the morbid risk Rate of schizophrenia and affective disorder in the general populations is low To select subjects at random for prospective evaluation, subjects chosen based On empirically elevated risk, allows investigation to assess the morbid risk Rates to the offspring and to discern environmental factors associated with the Development of such disorders in those who are predisposed. Childhood neurobehavioral deficits in offspring of parents with Psychosis can be predictors of psychosis in adulthood. Early HR studies Pointed to a wide prevalence of psychopathology among young relatives at Increased genetic risk. Recent studies suggest that young HR relatives have Neurobehavioral deficits and structural, physiological, and neurochemical Brain abnormalities that may date back to childhood or earlier. Prospective Studies of young relatives at risk for schizophrenia and affective disorder can Also shed light on premorbid precursors. Neurological deficits have been included in descriptions of Schizophrenia since Kraepelin first defined dementia precox. Studies have Reported a greater than normal overall number of neurological signs in patients With adult and childhood schizophrenia and in the offspring of schizophrenia (Reider and Nichols, 1979). In fact, the presence of neurological signs is so Strong a finding that a congenital neurointegrative deficit is believed to be at The base of at least some subtypes of the illness. Behavioral disorders and neurological soft signs are all possible Manifestations of the genetic predisposition to psychotic disorders. Several Studies have suggested a link between adult schizophrenia and certain Behavioral or neurological signs in childhood, and it is now well established That early signs of disorder can be found during infancy and childhood. However, these signs are not exclusive to schizophrenic illness, although they Occur with a greater prevalence in this group. Mirsky et al (1995) in their 25 year follow up of children at genetic risk For schizophrenia found that children who eventually developed schizophrenia Spectrum disorders were identifiable by cognitive-psychophysiological, Neurointegrative, and social/personality traits in the preteenage period. As Hanson et al., reported in 1976, which abnormalities best define the Schizophrenia vulnerable group among the offspring of schizophrenics, and When they first appear are questions that are not yet conclusively answered. Neurological abnormalities could represent an important early Biological marker for schizophrenia risk (Walker 1994), as a higher rate of Neurological abnormalities early in life has been found among individuals who Later develop schizophrenia (Fish 1987; Hans et al., 1999). However for Neurological abnormalities to function optimally as a biological marker for Schizophrenia risk, we need to know the specific form of neurological Abnormality related to schizophrenia risk, its distribution among high-risk and Normal-risk individuals, its personal stability over different ages, and its Specificity for risk for schizophrenia versus other psychoses. Debate continues About which specific neurobehavioral signs show the greatest sensitivity and Specificity to schizophrenia, and whether specific or general deficits are better Indicators of vulnerability to schizophrenia. As there are few comparative studies which have investigated the Specific neurobehavioral deficits that differentiate the children of parents with Schizophrenia from those with a parent suffering from affective disorder, this Study aimed at determining the neurobehavioral signs that are specific to Children of schizophrenic parent as against those with a parent suffering from Affective disorder