Biomedical subjects
S Mednick
Publications and source records attributed to S Mednick.
Sex differences in property crime in a Danish adoption cohort.
Sex differences in genetic and environmental influences on criminal behavior against property were studied in a birth cohort of 6129 male and 7065 female Danish adoptees and their biological and adoptive parents. Both genetic and environmental factors were found to contribute to variation in liability to property criminality, the relative proportions of variance explained being similar in males and females. Important shared- and nonshared-family environmental factors were present. In separate analyses of average liability toward property criminality, however, convicted females appeared to be more genetically predisposed than convicted males, a conclusion based on the finding that female property offenders were more likely than male offenders to have convicted biological (but adopted-away) offspring. On the other hand, property-offending males and females did not appear to differ in their average shared-family environmental liabilities, since conviction rates did not differ for adoptees of convicted adoptive mothers and fathers. Also, social class in the adoptive parents of convicted sons and daughters were comparable, further indicating that average shared-family environmental liabilities do not differ between the sexes.
Heredity-environment interaction and schizophrenia.
The longitudinal prospective study of populations at risk is considered a powerful strategy towards disentangling hereditary and environmental factors. Data from Mednick and Schulsinger's 1962 study in Copenhagen, on children at high-risk for schizophrenia are used as an illustration. Pregnancy and birth complications, as well as institutional rearing in early childhood contributes towards schizophrenia in the risk children, but not in the low-risk controls. Risk children with an outcome of schizotypal personality disorder were hardly exposed to perinatal complications. To some extent, schizophrenia may be considered as a complicated form of schizotypal personality disorder, which again may be a genetically transmitted condition.
Class drift and schizophrenia.
This study is part of an ongoing analysis of 207 children with schizophrenic mothers (high-risk subjects) and 104 low-risk controls begun in 1962 by Mednick & Schulsinger. The purpose of this study was to examine class mobility in schizophrenics, using a prospective paradigm. In the present study, 14 high-risk schizophrenics were matched with 14 high-risk non-schizophrenics and 14 low-risk non-schizophrenics on age, sex and social class origin. Groups were compared on highest class attainment and socio-economic status in 1972. Results indicated that while high-risk non-schizophrenics were comparable in class attainment to low-risk non-schizophrenics, the high-risk schizophrenics were downwardly mobile in comparison to their non-schizophrenic high-risk counterparts. The class drift hypothesis was thus supported.
Environmental factors related to schizophrenia in psychophysiologically labile high-risk males.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The children of psychiatrically disturbed parents: differences as a function of the sex of the sick parent.
To examine the effects of the sex of psychiatrically disturbed parent on the offspring, we compared children of a schizophrenic parent, a psychiatrically disturbed but not schizophrenic parent, and a normal parent using behavioral, attentional, and neurological indices. Results of a discriminant analysis indicate that children of psychiatrically disturbed mothers have an increased sensitivity to tactile stimulation, possibly reflecting more labile autonomic nervous system functioning. In addition, children with a schizophrenic parent of either sex show evidence of neurological motor dysfunction.
Alcoholism and depression in adopted-out daughters of alcoholics.
Forty-nine daughters of alcoholics were compared to 47 daughters of nonalcholics; both groups of women (average age, 35 years) had been adopted by nonrelatives early in life. Two women in each group were alcoholic or problem drinkers. Although this is above the expected rate of alcoholism among women, the numbers are too small to draw definite conclusions. Almost all were light drinkers. Daughters of alcoholics had no more depression than controls, indicating that alcoholism in the biological parents did not increase the risk of depression in daughters raised by foster parents. Environmental factors may be important in both alcoholism and depression in women, since both tended to be correlated with psychopathology in the foster parents.
Psychopathology in adopted and nonadopted daughters of alcoholics.
This report completes a series of studies conducted in Denmark comparing drinking patterns and psychopathology in adopted and nonadopted children of alcoholics. Sons of alcoholics had higher rates of alcoholism than controls, whether raised by their alcoholic parents or by foster parents. They did not have more psychopathology otherwise. Daughters of alcoholics, adopted and nonadopted, had a higher rate of alcoholism than was the expected frequency in the general population, but so did controls in the adopted group; neither group had higher rates of other psychopathology, eg, depression. However, daughters of alcoholics raised by their biological parents had significantly more depression.
Computer EEG and auditory evoked potential investigations in children at high risk for schizophrenia.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Low cholesterol and violent crime.
BACKGROUND: Community cohort studies and meta-analyses of randomized trials have shown a relation between low or lowered cholesterol and death by violence (homicide, suicide, accident); in primates, cholesterol reduction has been linked to increased behavioral acts of aggression (Kaplan J, Manuck S. The effects of fat and cholesterol on aggressive behaviour in monkeys. Psychosom. Med 1990;52:226-7; Kaplan J, Shively C, Fontenot D, Morgan T, Howell S, Manuck S et al. Demonstration of an association among dietary cholesterol, central serotonergic activity, and social behaviour in monkeys. Psychosom. Med 1994;56:479-84.). In this study we test for the first time whether cholesterol level is related to commission of violent crimes against others in a large community cohort. METHODS: We merged one-time cholesterol measurements on 79,777 subjects enrolled in a health screening project in Varmland, Sweden with subsequent police records for arrests for violent crimes in men and women aged 24-70 at enrollment; and with information on covariates. We performed a nested case control comparison of cholesterol in violent criminals - defined as those with two or more crimes of violence against others - to cholesterol in nonoffenders matched on age, enrollment year, sex, education and alcohol, using variable-ratio matching, with a nonparametric sign test. RESULTS: One hundred individuals met criteria for criminal violence. Low cholesterol (below the median) was strongly associated with criminal violence in unadjusted analysis (Men: risk ratio 1.94, P=0.002; all subjects risk ratio 2.32, P<0.001). Age emerged as a strong confounder. Adjusting for covariates using a matching procedure, violent criminals had significantly lower cholesterol than others identical in age, sex, alcohol indices and education, using a nonparametric sign test (P=0.012 all subjects; P=0.035 men). CONCLUSIONS: Adjusting for other factors, low cholesterol is associated with increased subsequent criminal violence.