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. 2006 Aug 29;3(8):e376. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030376

Author's Response to Dr. Leo

Patrick Sullivan 1,
PMCID: PMC1564293

Jonathan Leo raises issues with the adoption literature on schizophrenia [1]. These studies were intensively and independently scrutinized in the 1980s—see the series of papers by Kendler and Gruenberg (e.g., [2]). Most would agree that the number, size, and quality of adoption studies do not provide the highest-quality data (as discussed at more length elsewhere [3].

However, the salient point in my paper [4] was that this body of work (twin, adoption, and family studies) provides a consistent and solid rationale for the search for genes for schizophrenia.

Dr. Leo's comments about the treatment of schizophrenia are not within the scope of my paper.

Footnotes

Funding: The author received no specific funding for this article.

Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

References

  1. Leo J. Schizophrenia adoption studies. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e366. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030366. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030366. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Kendler KS, Gruenberg AM. An independent analysis of the Danish Adoption Study of Schizophrenia. VI. The relationship between psychiatric disorders as defined by DSM-III in the relatives and adoptees. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1984;41:555–564. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1984.01790170029004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Sullivan PF, Owen MJ, O'Donovan MC, Freedman RR. Washington (D. C.): American Psychiatric Publishing; 2005. Genetics. In: Lieberman J, Stroup T, Perkins D, editors. Textbook of schizophrenia. [Google Scholar]
  4. Sullivan PF. The genetics of schizophrenia. PLoS Med. 2005;2:e212. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020212. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020212. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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