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. 2007 Aug;9(5):496-503.
doi: 10.1111/j.1399-5618.2007.00390.x.

Aggression, hostility, and irritability in children at risk for bipolar disorder

Tiffany R Farchione  1 , Boris Birmaher, David Axelson, Cathy Kalas, Kelly Monk, Mary Ehmann, Satish Iyengar, David Kupfer, David Brent
Affiliations

Aggression, hostility, and irritability in children at risk for bipolar disorder

Tiffany R Farchione et al. Bipolar Disord. 2007 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: To assess aggression, irritability and hostility in children at risk for bipolar disorder (BP).

Methods: Using the parent and the child versions of the Children's Hostility Inventory (CHI), we assessed aggression, hostility, and irritability in 300 offspring aged 6-18 years old of BP parents and 169 children of community controls.

Results: Children of BP parents have significantly higher scores on the total CHI and its subscales than do children of control parents. After adjusting for demographic variables, both parents' non-BP psychopathology, child psychopathology, and within-family correlations, three factors remain significant: total CHI by parent rating, irritability subscale by parent rating, and irritability by child self-report. The hostility subscale by parent rating became a trend.

Conclusions: Children of BP parents score higher on ratings of hostility and irritability than children of community control parents, independent of child psychopathology and non-BP parental psychopathology. Follow-up of these children to evaluate whether these symptoms are markers for the development of BP or mood disorders is warranted.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors of this paper do not have any commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with this manuscript.

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