Psychiatric illness in first degree relatives of Nigerian schizophrenic and surgical control patients

Psychiatric morbidity risk was assessed in 293 first degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia and 277 first degree relatives of surgical control patients using the family history method (FH-RDC). The morbidity risk for schizophrenia, alcoholism and schizoid personality disorder was significantly greater in relatives of schizophrenic patients. Affective disorder was difficult to diagnose using the family history method. Of the relatives of the schizophrenic probands who had psychotic illness 73.3% received treatment from traditional healers. The problem of social stigmatization of psychiatric illness was a deterrent to obtaining adequate family history, invariably the most reliable informant was the index proband. The problem was compounded by the paucity of and inaccessibility to treatment records from the traditional healers.