Segregation Analysis of Schizophrenia under a Mixed Genetic Model

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Abstract
Family data were collected on a multi-ethnic cohort of hospitalized schizophrenics in Hawaii in 1942, Results showed that prevalence rates for Orientals were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than rates for Caucasians, Polynesians and others. Complex segregation analysis using a generalized mixed genetic model was performed on 507 sibships collected under both complete and incomplete selection. Likelihood ratio tests between the generalized model and two subhypotheses of a major gene effect and a polygenic effect revealed that neither subhypothesis could be rejected at the 5% level of significance. While neither hypothesis could be adequately supported by the likelihood ratio test, certain aspects of the findings suggest a preference for the multifactorial model in explaining the inheritance of schizophrenia in these data.