Personality disorder in the families of depressed, schizophrenic, and never-ill probands

Abstract

In a blind family study of 176 probands with nonpsychotic major depression, psychotic major depression, schizophrenia, or no history of DSM-III disorders, only the relatives of depressed probands with mood- incongruent psychotic features had a risk for personality disorders higher than that for the relatives of never-ill probands. The authors did not find a high rate of borderline personality in relatives of depressed probands or of schizotypal personality disorder in relatives of probands with schizophrenia or any psychosis. However, depressed probands with normal dexamethasone test results had a significantly higher familial loading for the DSM-III cluster of histrionic, antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic personality disorders.