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Psychiatric Illnesses in the Families of Female Criminals: A Study of 288 First-Degree Relatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

C. Robert Cloninger
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.
Samuel B. Guze
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 4940 Audubon Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, U.S.A.

Extract

Sociopathy, alcoholism, and drug dependence have been shown to be the only psychiatric disorders more frequent among convicted male felons than in the general population (4, 5). In these studies, sociopathy, regardless of other disorders, was found in nearly 80 per cent. An increased prevalence of sociopathy, alcoholism, drug dependence, and hysteria, or Briquet's Syndrome (3), was found among the first-degree relatives of these felons; hysteria (Briquet's Syndrome) among the female relatives and the other disorders predominantly among the male relatives. Overall, 44 per cent of the male felons' first-degree relatives received a psychiatric diagnosis (6).

Type
Abstract
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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References

1 Cloninger, C. R., and Guze, S. B. (1970). ‘Psychiatric illness and female criminality: the role of sociopathy and hysteria in the antisocial woman.’ Amer. J. Psychiat., 127, 3, 303–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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6 Guze, S. B. Wolfgram, E. D., McKinney, J. K., and Cantwell, D. P. (1967). ‘Psychiatric illness in the families of convicted criminals: a study of 519 first-degree relatives.’ Dis. nerv. Syst., 28, 651–9.Google ScholarPubMed
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