Eur Psychiatry 1998 ; 13 : 270-2 0 Elsevier. Paris Rapid communication Family history and obstetric complications in deficit and non-deficit schizophrenia: preliminary results S Dollfus’, S Germain-Robin2, B Chabotl, P Brazol, P Delamillieurel, S Langlois2, A van der Elst2, D Campion2, M Petit* Groupe de recherche UPRES - JE 2014, ‘Centre Esquirol, Centre Hospitalier - Universitaire C&e de Nacre, 14033 Caen cedex; 2Centre Hospitalier du Rouvray, 76301 Sotteville-les-Rouen, France (Received 26 February 1998; accepted 19 May 1998) Summary - The aim of this study was to test that deficit (D) schizophrenic patients as defined by Carpenter et al had a higher prevalence of family history of schizophrenia but less obstetric complications than non-deficit (ND) patients. A lower rate of obstetric complications but an excess of schizophrenic and a higher rate of alcoholism family antecedents in 18 D patients compared to 23 ND patients were found. These results could suggest that there is a different weight of genetic and early environmental factors in D and ND patients. 0 1998 Elsevier, Paris schizophrenia / family history I deficit syndrome I obstetric complications / alcoholism Although several forms of schizophrenia have been described since Kraepelin and Bleuler, the involve- ment of one or several neurobiological processes underlying these different forms is still debated. One of the most recognised etiopathogenic models is the multifactorial polygenic model with genetic and envi- ronmental factors involved in the liability to develop schizophrenia. However, the weight of the genetic and environmental factors in the different forms of schizo- phrenia is unknown. Authors have proposed to subdi- vide schizophrenia into subtypes depending on the family history and environmental factors [5, 61. Doll- fus et al [2] stressed that deficit (D) patients defined by primary and enduring negative symptoms [l] were more likely to inherit schizophrenia. Thus, the genetic involvement in schizophrenia could vary depending on the form of illness. Among the early environmental factors, perinatal complications could increase predisposition to schizo- phrenia [6]. There have been many reports of a higher incidence of “obstetric complications” in the histories of schizophrenics than of normal controls (for reviews see [4]). Some studies support the view that environ- mental factors such as obstetric complications might be found in excess in patients without a family history and vice-versa. The aim of this study was to test if the rates of familial antecedents of schizophrenia and obstetric complications were inversed in D and non-deficit (ND) schizophrenic patients. We assumed that D patients had a higher prevalence of family history of schizophrenia but less obstetric complications than ND patients. METHODS Schizophrenic patients (DSM-III-R or DSM-IV) were eval- uated as D and ND by the Schedule of Deficit Syndrome [3] and translated and validated in French [9]. The inter-rater reliability between investigators was excellent (Kappa = 1). Some patients were also evaluated with the Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) by three investigators with a good inter-rater reliability (Kappa = 0.8). Family history (FH) of mental disorders was considered when one mental disorder among first degree biological rel- atives was found; this was conducted through interviews with the patients and the family. All assessments were made after informed and written consent of the patients by one investigator who was unaware of the deficit-non-deficit cate- gorisation. First, the patient was interviewed in order to col- lect data on illness in first degree relatives. Then, family members with a suspected mental disorder were interviewed