Medical comorbidity and schizophrenia: editors' introduction

Schizophrenia is a heavily biologically determined psychiatric disorder with unequivocal evidence for a major genetic component in its transmission. In addition to its genetic determination, schizophrenia is also associated with increased morbidity and mortality with illness and suffering and with death rates that are higher than would be expected. One of the intriguing possibilities is that there may be some biological link between genetic predisposition to schizophrenia and to other medical diseases. This research on medical comorbidity, originally presented at the Tenth Annual Pennsylvania Conference on Schizophrenia at Norristown State Hospital, requires further research and understanding.