Cognitive Deficits in Unaffected First-Degree Relatives of Schizophrenia Patients: A Meta-analytic Review of Putative Endophenotypes

Cognitive deficits may index genetic liability for schizophrenia and are candidate endophenotypes for the illness. In order to compare the degree of sensitivity among cognitive tasks to group differences between healthy relatives and controls and the influence of moderator variables, this review reports mean effect sizes for 43 cognitive test scores from 58 studies of cognitive performance in the unaffected adult relatives of schizophrenia patients. Results indicate reliable relative-control differences, in the small to medium effect size range, over a diverse array of tasks, with the largest effect sizes seen in complex versions of continuous performance tasks, auditory verbal learning, design copy tests, and…

• NI
  National Institute of Mental Health