Communication deviance in families of schizophrenic and other psychiatric patients: current state of the construct.

High levels of parental communication deviance may represent risk markers for the onset of severe psychiatric disorders in vulnerable offspring, and are associated with markers of vulnerability among schizophrenic patients and among at-risk children. Future research that proceeds in the direction of further clarifying the longitudinal association between CD and the onset of severe psychiatric disorders, and the relation of CD to genetically-based vulnerabilities, may result in determining constellations of individual and family attributes that are powerful in identifying high-risk populations.