This case report describes the occurrence of interrelated schizophrenic psychoses in fraternal twins, a phenomenon more commonly associated with identical twins.
Extends schizophrenia concordance reports to fraternal twins; leaves open shared etiology and requires replication beyond this case.
The onset of psychoses in both identical twins, often with a striking similarity in symptomatology, time of onset, and severity of illness is an impressive phenomenon that has often been recorded as common,15,23,28and occasionally described.3,11,19,29,30,31We wish to report a similar occurrence in a set of fraternal twins who, despite differences in appearance, had been raised in a manner usual only among identical twins and who had continued to live syncytially until a few weeks before one became overtly psychotic at the age of 26. Interest in schizophrenia in twins has until recently focused primarily upon the high concordance among identical twins in contrast to the lower concordance among fraternal twins and siblings. Luxenburger,20Rosanoff,23Essen-Moller,7Kallmann,15Slater,28and others have documented such findings. Kallmann reported the most distinctive difference, a concordance of 86% in identical twins in comparison with
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D. CLINT SMITH (1964) studied this question.
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