Psychiatric disorders in young adult intercountry adoptees: an epidemiological study.
OBJECTIVE
The prevalences of psychiatric disorders in young adult intercountry adoptees and nonadopted young adults from the general population were compared.


METHODS
In the Netherlands, a total of 1,484 young adult intercountry adoptees (72.5% of the original sample at age 10-15 years) and 695 nonadopted subjects (78.1% of the original sample) of comparable age from the general population were interviewed by using a standardized psychiatric interview generating DSM-IV diagnoses.


RESULTS
The adopted young adults were 1.52 times as likely to meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder as the nonadopted young adults; the 95% confidence interval (CI) was 1.15-2.00. The adoptees were 2.05 (95% CI=1.32-3.17) times as likely to meet the criteria for substance abuse or dependence. The adopted men were 3.76 (95% CI=1.69-8.37) times as likely to have a mood disorder as nonadopted men, while for women there was no significant difference between adoptees and nonadoptees. No significant difference for the diagnosis of disruptive disorder was found. For all diagnoses together, adoptees with low and middle parental socioeconomic status in childhood did not differ from the comparison subjects, while adoptees with high parental socioeconomic status were 2.17 times (95% CI=1.50-3.13) as likely to meet the criteria for a disorder as nonadoptees with high parental socioeconomic status.


CONCLUSIONS
Intercountry adoptees run a higher risk of having severe mental health problems in adulthood than nonadoptees of the same age. The risk of later malfunctioning differs for different disorders and different groups of adoptees.
Tieman
Wendy
W
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Sophia Children's Hospital, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, P.O. Box 2060, 3000 CB Rotterdam, the Netherlands. w.tieman@erasmusmc.nl
van der Ende
Jan
J
Verhulst
Frank C
FC
D000293:Adolescent; D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors