Velo‐cardio‐facial syndrome and psychotic disorders: Implications for psychiatric genetics

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Abstract
Psychiatric disorders have been reported in over 10% of patients with velo‐cardio‐facial syndrome (VCFS) in long‐term follow‐up. To further explore the behavioral and psychiatric findings associated with VCFS in adulthood, detailed clinical histories of two patients—one with VCFS who developed a psychotic illness, and one with schizophrenia who was found to have dysmorphological features associated with VCFS—are described in the current report. The observed overlap of physical and psychiatric symptoms in these two patients suggests that VCFS and psychotic disorders may share a pathogenetic mechanism. This could be consistent with a contiguous gene model for VCFS and psychosis, suggesting chromosome 22q11 as a possible candidate region for genetic studies of schizophrenia.