Psychiatric disorder in adolescent offspring of parents with affective disorder in a non-referred sample.
The relationship between parental psychopathology and psychiatric disturbance in 153 offspring aged 6-19 was assessed in 81 families randomly selected from a prepaid health plan. Offspring of parents with a history of affective disorders and of parents with non-affective psychiatric disorders had higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses and poorer adaptive functioning than children of parents who had never experienced a psychiatric illness. Offspring whose parents had affective disorder had a rate of affective disorder of 30% compared to a rate of 2% in the rest of the sample. This relationship between parental affective disorder and poor child outcome was observed when the separated and divorced families were removed from the analyses.
Beardslee
W R
WR
Department of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.
Keller
M B
MB
Lavori
P W
PW
Klerman
G K
GK
Dorer
D J
DJ
Samuelson
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000235:genetics; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012307:Risk Factors; D012923:Social Class