Can schizophrenia with premorbid asociality be genetically distinguished from the other forms of schizophrenia?

Sufficient data exist to establish a genetic basis for some forms of schizophrenia. However, genetic factors may not account for all the variance, and subtle forms of central nervous system (CNS) damage may have etiological significance for some schizophrenic subtypes. One such subtype may be chronic schizophrenia with premorbid asociality (SPA). To test this hypothesis, the risk of schizophrenia among relatives of probands who did or did not meet the criteria for SPA was examined. The incidence of schizophrenia in the relatives of SPA probands was lower than that in the relatives of non-SPA probands. This difference approached but did not reach statistical significance. Because most studies have found a higher familial genetic loading in chronic forms of schizophrenia, the apparently lower incidence of disorder in relatives of chronic schizophrenics with premorbid asociality seems to be a heuristic lead worth pursuing.