Children of parents with obsessive-compulsive disorder -- a 2-year follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between parental obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and emotional and behavioural disorders in offspring.


METHODS
Demographic, clinical, and diagnostic data were collected from parents with OCD, control subjects, and their respective offspring. Offspring were reassessed at a 2-year follow-up.


RESULTS
Probands with OCD and controls were relatively well matched for age, gender, race, educational rating, and marital status. Offspring of OCD probands were at greater risk than offspring of controls for dimensionally measured anxiety, depression, somatization, and social problems. OCD offspring were significantly more likely than control offspring to have lifetime overanxious disorder, separation anxiety disorder, OCD, or 'any anxiety disorder'. Female gender in the parent with OCD, evidence of family dysfunction, and high symptom levels in offspring were predictive of broadly defined OCD at follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
Children having a parent with OCD are more likely than control offspring to have social, emotional, and behavioural disorders.
Black
D W
DW
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Roy J and Lucille A Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242-1000, USA. donald-black@uiowa.edu
Gaffney
G R
GR
Schlosser
S
S
Gabel
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012307:Risk Factors; D012919:Social Behavior