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Birth Rank and Schizophrenia

Abstract

HINSHELWOOD1 reported an association of schizophrenia with the last but one birth rank. Barry and Barry2 were not able to confirm this, but found that later birth ranks were associated with schizophrenia in families of five or more and especially from families of eight or more. They also drew attention to the contrary findings of Sundararaj and Rao in India3 and suggested an explanation in terms of different cultural stress for different birth ranks. Our own studies suggest there may be a single technical explanation for all these findings.

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References

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HARE, E., PRICE, J. Birth Rank and Schizophrenia. Nature 228, 1223–1224 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/2281223a0

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