SynthesisBMC psychiatry2011
A systematic review and meta-analysis of neurological soft signs in relatives of people with schizophrenia.
Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evidence-based atlas of risk and protective factors for psychotic disorders: an umbrella review to inform personalized prognosis and prevention.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026Article
- Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial for the effectiveness of psychomotor therapy on quality of life and psychomotor skills in depression.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Redox Homeostasis and Oxidative Stress in Schizophrenia: Glutathione-NMDA-Neuroimmune Convergence and a Hypothesis-Generating Iron-Lipid Redox Extension.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Theory of mind variability in schizophrenia: A neurodevelopmental perspective through neurological soft signs and premorbid adjustment.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2025Article
- A frame network study of first-episode schizophrenia, ultra-high risk, and healthy populations.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Neurological soft signs in borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2025Article
- Structural deviations of the posterior fossa and the cerebellum and their cognitive links in a neurodevelopmental deletion syndrome.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Article
- Advances in Genetics and Epigenetics of Developmental Coordination Disorder in Children.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Neurological Soft Signs in Schizophrenia, a Picture of the Knowledge in the Last Decade: A Scoping Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The temporal relationship between severe mental illness diagnosis and chronic physical comorbidity: a UK primary care cohort study of disease burden over 10 years.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2022Article
- The neural substrates of neurological soft signs in schizophrenia: a systematic review.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2022Review
- Neurological Soft Signs (NSS) in Census-Based, Decade-Adjusted Healthy Adults, 20 to >70 Years of Age.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Neurological soft signs (NSS) and brain morphology in patients with chronic schizophrenia and healthy controls.PloS one · 2020Article
- Exploring the Relationship of Transdiagnostic Mood and Psychosis Symptom Domains with Motor Dysfunction.Neuropsychobiology · 2020Article
- Risk Model Assessment in Early-Onset and Adult-Onset Schizophrenia Using Neurological Soft Signs.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Article
- Neurological soft signs (NSS) and cognitive impairment in chronic schizophrenia.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2019Article
- What causes psychosis? An umbrella review of risk and protective factors.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2018Article
- Distinct Associations of Motor Domains in Relatives of Schizophrenia Patients-Different Pathways to Motor Abnormalities in Schizophrenia?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Neurological Soft Signs and Psychopathology in Chronic Schizophrenia: A Cross-Sectional Study in Three Age Groups.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Association of sFlt-1 and worsening psychopathology in relatives at high risk for psychosis: A longitudinal study.Schizophrenia research · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNeurological soft signs are subtle but observable impairments in motor and sensory functions that are not localized to a specific area of the brain. Neurological soft signs are common in schizophrenia. It has been established that soft signs meet two of five criteria for an endophenotype, namely: association with the illness, and state independence. This review investigated whether soft signs met a further criterion for an endophenotype, namely familial association. It was hypothesized that if familial association were present then neurological soft signs would be: (a) more common in first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia than in controls; and (b) more common in people with schizophrenia than in their first-degree relatives.
methodA systematic search identified potentially eligible studies in the EMBASE (1980-2011), OVID - MEDLINE (1950-2011) and PsycINFO (1806-2011) databases. Studies were included if they carried out a three-way comparison of levels of soft signs between people with schizophrenia, their first-degree relatives, and normal controls. Data were extracted independently by two reviewers and cross-checked by double entry.
resultsAfter screening 8678 abstracts, seven studies with 1553 participants were identified. Neurological soft signs were significantly more common in first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia than in controls (pooled standardised mean difference (SMD) 1.24, 95% confidence interval (c.i) 0.59-1.89). Neurological soft signs were also significantly more common in people with schizophrenia than in their first-degree relatives (SMD 0.92, 95% c.i 0.64-1.20). Sensitivity analyses examining the effects of age and group blinding did not significantly alter the main findings.
conclusionsBoth hypotheses were confirmed, suggesting that the distribution of neurological soft signs in people with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives is consistent with the endophenotype criterion of familial association.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.