Early neurobehavioral deficits as phenotypic indicators of the schizophrenia genotype and predictors of later psychosis.

Schizophrenia is a genetically complex disorder that requires sharper delineation of its phenotypic boundaries. Considerable attention has been devoted in recent family and high-risk studies to the identification of both subclinical and other phenotypes, such as neurobehavioral deficits, that may be indicators of the genetic liability to schizophrenia. In high-risk studies, candidate liability indicators that are evident by young ages are also evaluated for their ability to predict future schizophrenia or spectrum disorders. We report on assessments of verbal short-term memory, gross motor skills, and global attention administered in midchildhood to offspring of schizophrenic, affectively ill, and normal parents as predictors of adult psychoses and as possible indicators of schizophrenia-susceptibility genes.