A blind family history study of Briquet's syndrome. Further validation of the diagnosis.

We undertook a blind family history study of Briquet's syndrome to complement earlier follow-up work by Perley and Guze. The same criteria were used in a chart review to select 49 Briquet's syndrome cases. One control group consisted of consecutive "non-Briquet hysteria" admissions and another of matched primary unipolar depressed cases. First-degree relatives of the Briquet's syndrome probands had significantly less affective disorder and more "complicated medical history" then either control group. The "non-Briquet hysteria" group contained more faily histories with instances of schizophrenia than either the Briquet's syndrome or effective disorder groups. These results provide additional validation of the Briquet's syndrome diagnosis.