Albus M, Maier W
Division of Teaching and Research, State Mental Hospital Haar, Germany.
Schizophr Res. 1995 Dec;18(1):51-7. doi: 10.1016/0920-9964(95)00038-0.
One of the most consistent findings in the epidemiology of schizophrenia is that males are younger at the onset of schizophrenia than females. However, the vast majority of studies focussing on gender differences have not considered the potential influence of genetic factors on age at onset. We investigated the impact of familial loading on gender differences in age at onset in families with at least two siblings with RDC/DSM-III-R schizophrenia or chronic schizoaffective disorder. A total of 106 sib pairs, including 38 male-male pairs, 29 female-female pairs and 39 mixed-sex pairs of siblings as well as 260 male and 221 female isolated cases with no relative of first, second or third degree suffering from psychotic or major affective illness were investigated. We found no gender differences in age at onset in familial cases. An earlier age at onset in males compared to females was observed only in isolated cases. Our data strongly support the assumption that gender differences in age at onset of schizophrenia is not consistent across all subgroups of schizophrenics.
精神分裂症流行病学中最一致的发现之一是，男性精神分裂症发病年龄比女性小。然而，绝大多数关注性别差异的研究并未考虑遗传因素对发病年龄的潜在影响。我们调查了至少有两个患有研究用诊断标准/《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第三版修订版精神分裂症或慢性分裂情感性障碍的兄弟姐妹的家庭中，家族负荷对发病年龄性别差异的影响。共调查了106对同胞，包括38对男性同胞对、29对女性同胞对和39对不同性别的同胞对，以及260例男性和221例女性散发病例，这些散发病例没有一级、二级或三级亲属患有精神病或重度情感性疾病。我们发现在家族性病例中发病年龄没有性别差异。仅在散发病例中观察到男性发病年龄比女性早。我们的数据有力地支持了这样一种假设，即精神分裂症发病年龄的性别差异在所有精神分裂症亚组中并不一致。
