Abstract
Schizophrenia: Personality components as risk factors. The relatedness of premorbid personality traits to further onset of schizophrenic disorders is analyzed. Categorical and dimensional concepts of schizophrenia are first discussed, as a basis for opposite conceptualizations of possible relationship between personality and schizophrenia; besides some etiological aspects of the disorder. Diagnostic criteria for schizotypal personality are then analyzed, arguing that two different trends have influenced our conceptualization of this diagnostic entity. The first is termed "familial" because of its emphasis on characteristic traits found in the deviant but nonpsychotic relatives of schizophrenics. The second or "clinical" approach focuses on patients who, though not classically schizophrenic, nonetheless demonstrate, in attenuated forms, features that are regarded as fundamental symptoms of schizophrenia. Finally, a revision is made of longitudinal research of high risk cohorts and some conclusions are derived from current knowledge about personality-schizophrenia relationship.
