The New York High-risk Project: A Followup Report

The New York High-Risk Project began in 1971 as a prospective, longitudinal study of (1) children of one or two schizophrenic parents and (2) comparison groups of children whose parents had other or no psychiatric disorders. The former were examined because they were known to be at high risk--some 10-25 percent for children with one affected parent and 35-45 percent with two affected parents--for developing schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders during adolescence or adulthood (Erlenmeyer-Kimling 1977; Gottesman and Shields 1982). Children of parents with affective disorders were included because we wished to determine whether variables that might differentiate the children of schizophrenic parents from the children of normal parents also differentiated them from children of parents with other psychiatric disorders. Major goals of the program were (1) identification of biological and behavioral indicators of a genetic liability to develop schizophrenia and (2) longitudinal followup of the subjects to assess the predictive validity and specificity of variables tentatively flagged as early indicators. Other goals have included evaluation of the developmental course of such variables and documentation of the history of the development of schizophrenic disorders.