Concordance of atopic and affective disorders

The personal and family history of bronchial asthma and/or hay fever was obtained from a series of 82 psychiatric patients. We report a significantly higher incidence of atopic disorders in affective patients (16/48) than in schizophrenic patients (2/34) (chi-square = 8.754, P less than 0.005). There was also a significantly higher incidence of atopic disorders among the first-degree relatives of patients with affective disorders (48/356) than among the first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia (10/182) (chi-square 8.501, P less than 0.005).