title: Psychiatric disorder in adolescent offspring of parents with affective disorder in a non-referred sample.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Beardslee
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Lavori
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Klerman
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Dorer
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Samuelson
mesh_terms: 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