Psychiatric disorders in adult children of parents with a history of psychopathology

Abstract

Background: The relation between major categories of psychiatric problems in parents and psychiatric disorders in their adult children has been investigated in only a few community studies.

Methods: In this study, data from a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 7147) (response rate: 69.7 %) were used to examine this relation. DSM-III-R disorders were assessed using the CIDI. Parental psychiatric symptoms and childhood adversities were assessed using self-report measures.

Results: It was found that psychiatric symptoms in parents are strongly related to psychiatric disorders in their (adult) children, independent of type of parental psychiatric symptom. Only maternal problem drinking was not significantly related to an increased risk for their children. When controlled for childhood adversities and demographic variables, most relations between psychiatric disorders and parental psychiatric symptoms remained significant. Parental anxiety symptoms, however, were not significantly related to psychiatric disorders in the children, including anxiety disorders. It was also found that anxiety disorders in the children were not related to most parental psychiatric symptoms.

Conclusions: This study has once more made it clear that children whose parents have psychiatric problems constitute an important high-risk group and that prevention and early intervention in these children constitute an important public health issue.