ABSTRACT
Infant mortality in the families of schizophrenics has been evoked in two opposite ways; the first one claims that it should be higher than in the general population, as bereavement and mourning problems might play an important role in the aetiology of schizophrenia. The Standardised Mortality Ratio is lower in the families of schizophrenics than in those of controls, and the direct comparison of the two groups one with another shows a significant decrease of neonatal mortality in the families of schizophrenics. The same explanation could possibly account in the families of schizophrenics for the over-representation of fathers upward of six years older than their wives, as well as for the smaller size of the maternal sibships. Early deaths (infant mortality and early parental death, when not repetitive) are not more frequent in the families of schizophrenics. .
