A Swinging Test

A diagnosis of schizophrenia is difficult at best; identifying a person who may develop schizophrenia in the future has so far been impossible. Now a University of Chicago research team reports that it has found a way, almost as simple as the hammer-and-knee-jerk reflex test, to do both. The test involves observing the patient's eye movements as he follows the swing of a pendulum.

When a person watches a moving object, he uses an eye movement called pursuit, in which the eyeballs move back and forth to maintain a stable image. This is no problem for most people, but Dr. Philip S. Holzman and his colleagues report in the Archives of General Psychiatry that in schizophrenics this eye movement is markedly impaired. It is also impaired, but usually not so conspicuously, in close blood relatives (fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers) of patients--a significant finding, for although schizophrenia is not directly inherited, it tends to run in families. If psychiatrists can identify susceptible individuals in the first stages of the disorder, they may begin effective drug treatment early enough to abort the severest forms of schizophrenia.

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