[Family background of patients with slowly progressive childhood schizophrenia with a syndrome of pathologic fantasizing].

The authors studied the familial background of 50 probands suffering from slowly progressive infantile schizophrenia with the morbid fantasy making syndrome. A total of 110 firstkin relatives (100 parents and 10 siblings) were examined. The incidence of manifest psychoses in parents was 16% (8 persons) in the first group of probands and 6% (3 persons) in the second group. "Subclinical forms of psychosis" and personality abnormalities of the type of sthenic schizoids were also prevalent among the relatives of the second group probands (22% and 28%, respectively). Parents denoted as schizoids with a marked emotional defect were present only in the families of the Group I probands (10%) while individuals of a hyperthymic type were observed only in the families of Group 2 probands (16%). Parents considered as normal were markedly prevalent among the relatives of Group I probands (16% and 6%, respectively).