Family and adoption studies show that which personality disorder occurs at an increased rate in the first-degree biological relatives of patients with schizophrenia, supporting its placement on the schizophrenia spectrum?

• A Schizotypal personality disorder ✓
• B Antisocial personality disorder
• C Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
• D Dependent personality disorder

Explanation

Schizotypal personality disorder shares genetic liability with schizophrenia: it is more common in first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia, which is why DSM-5 places it within the schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorders chapter. Its cognitive-perceptual features such as ideas of reference and magical thinking resemble attenuated positive symptoms of psychosis. Antisocial, obsessive-compulsive, and dependent personality disorders show no such familial aggregation with schizophrenia.

Reference: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry, 11th ed.

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