The schizophrenia and bipolar twin study in Sweden (STAR).

The schizophrenia and bipolar twin study in Sweden (STAR) is a large nation-wide cohort of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) same-sex twins with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and healthy control pairs, extensively characterized with brain imaging, neuropsychological tests, biomarkers, genetic testing, psychiatric symptoms and personality traits. The purpose is to investigate genetic and environmental mechanisms that give rise to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as well as the intermediate phenotypes. This article describes the design, recruitment, data collection, measures, collected twins' characteristics, diagnostic procedures as well as ongoing and planned analyses. Identification of biomarkers, genetic and epigenetic variation and the development of specific and common endophenotypes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are potential gains from this cohort.