Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Schizophr Res. 2011 Sep;131(1-3):31-4. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2011.05.008. Epub 2011 Jun 1.
The implications of increased understanding of the genetic contribution to schizophrenia for patients and their families remain unclear. We carried out a study of Chinese patients'(n=118) and relatives' (n=78) views of illness severity, attribution of cause, concern about developing illness, and effect of schizophrenia on family planning. A comparison sample of English-survey respondents was also obtained, using the same series of questions (n=42 patients, n=127 relatives). Fewer Chinese patients and family members rated schizophrenia as very severe (33%) than did the predominantly North American respondents (67%, p<0.0001). The pattern of attribution of cause differed between samples (p<0.0001), favoring environmental alone in the Chinese sample (52%), with a low frequency of genetics alone (9%). Although comparatively fewer Chinese respondents were very concerned about developing schizophrenia themselves or about the risk of illness in their families (21%), this high level of concern was more common in family members (28%). Finally, Chinese respondents were somewhat less likely to indicate that schizophrenia impacted on family planning decisions (31%) than were English-survey respondents (45%, p=0.02). The descriptive findings contribute to understanding schizophrenia in China. The comparative findings must be regarded as preliminary, since differences in demographics could influence results. The present findings suggest that understanding patients' and families' attributions of cause of schizophrenia may be important for developing a shared model of illness in order to decrease stigmatization, and improve therapeutic alliances.
增加对精神分裂症遗传因素的理解对患者及其家属的影响尚不清楚。我们对中国患者（n=118）及其亲属（n=78）对疾病严重程度、病因归因、对发病的担忧以及精神分裂症对计划生育的影响的看法进行了研究。还获得了一组使用相同问题系列的英语调查受访者的比较样本（n=42 名患者，n=127 名亲属）。与主要来自北美的受访者（67%，p<0.0001）相比，中国患者和家庭成员中认为精神分裂症非常严重的比例（33%）较少。病因归因模式在两个样本之间存在差异（p<0.0001），中国样本中单独归因于环境的比例较高（52%），单独归因于遗传的比例较低（9%）。尽管与英语调查受访者（45%，p=0.02）相比，中国受访者中自己非常担心患上精神分裂症或担心家人患病的比例相对较低（21%），但这种高度担忧在家庭成员中更为常见（28%）。最后，与英语调查受访者（45%）相比，中国受访者表示精神分裂症对计划生育决策有影响的比例略低（31%）。这些描述性发现有助于了解中国的精神分裂症。由于人口统计学差异可能会影响结果，因此比较性发现必须被视为初步结果。目前的研究结果表明，了解患者和家属对精神分裂症病因的归因可能对于制定共同的疾病模型以减少污名化和改善治疗联盟非常重要。
