Familial schizophrenia. A predictor of neuromotor and attentional abnormalities in schizophrenia.

Family history of psychopathology may have a role in schizophrenics' attentional and neuromotor functions. Twelve schizophrenics with a schizophrenic biological parent (SFH), 12 schizophrenics with no history of schizophrenia in first- or second-degree relatives (SNFH), 12 psychiatric controls, and 12 normal controls were given brief neuromotor examinations and the continuous performance test (CPT). Statistical analyses indicated that SFH manifested significantly more neuromotor abnormalities than did normal controls. On the CPT, SFH had significantly more errors than SNFH and psychiatric controls and slower reaction times than psychiatric controls.