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Data on schizoaffective illness, schizophrenia and affective disorders were gathered on first-degree relatives of schizoaffective probands and matched controls (bipolars, unipolars and schizophrenics). The familial pattern of affective and schizophrenic subtypes of schizoaffective disorder resembled the familial pattern of affective and schizophrenic probands, respectively. The overall risk for the spectrum of schizoaffective and affective disorders was higher among relatives of schizoaffective-manic as compared to relatives of schizoaffective-depressive probands, although the difference fell short of significance. When tested for consistency with multiple threshold hypotheses of genetic transmission, schizoaffective illness did not qualify as either a more extreme form of affective illness nor as a disorder that occupies an intermediate position between bipolar and unipolar disorders or is genetically milder than affective disorder. The implications of diagnostic subtyping for genetic research in the major psychoses were discussed.

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In psychobiological research on sexual orientation, the prenatal hormone theory has a central position. This article examines the hypothesis that prenatal estrogens contribute to the development of human sexual orientation. Several groups of women with a history of prenatal exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a nonsteroidal synthetic estrogen, were compared with several samples of control women in the context of a comprehensive study of the psychiatric and psychologic effects of prenatal DES. Various aspects of sexual orientation were assessed by systematic interview. Consistently across samples, more DES-exposed women than controls were rated as bisexual or homosexual (scores 2-6 on Kinsey-format scales ranging from 0 to 6). The data are compatible with the hypothesis that prenatal estrogens may play a role in the development of human sexual orientation. Homosexual Orientation and Psychosexual DifferentiationPsychoendocrine research has considered sexual orientation mostly in the context of sexual and psychosexual differentiation, that is, the development of physical and behavioral differences between female and male individuals (Meyer- Bahlburg, 1984Bahlburg, ,1993. This approach is based on the notion that an individual's homosexual orientation constitutes an aspect of crossgender behavior, that is, behavior that is more typical of the other gender than of the person's own. Empirical support for this notion comes from a number of data sets that show atypical gender role behavior during childhood (by history) in about two thirds of homosexual men and women (e.g., Bell, Weinberg, & Hammersmith, 1981;Whitam & Mathy, 1986). For many homosexual men and women, atypical behavior only implies a history of relatively low stereotypical masculinity or femininity,

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