Regional gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid distributions in schizophrenic patients, their siblings, and controls.

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Abstract
STRUCTURAL CEREBRAL abnormalities are robust correlates of schizophrenia, but their causes have not been established conclusively.1,2 Family studies can be informative in this regard.3 A structural or functional abnormality that is expressed in probands with schizophrenia and some of their relatives without schizophrenia is likely to reflect genetic processes that confer vulnerability to the disorder.4 Although shared environmental effects could also account for this pattern, results of twin and adoption studies5,6 show that such effects have a negligible contribution to the cause of schizophrenia overall and are thus unlikely to have a substantial effect on biologic markers of the disorder. Conversely, an abnormality that is expressed in probands with schizophrenia but not their relatives could reflect nonshared (genetic or individual-specific environmental) causative factors or processes secondary to the manifestation of psychosis or its treatment.