Can physicians use family genogram information to identify patients at risk of anxiety or depression?

Abstract

Advocates of family-oriented care assert that physicians' use of family genograms can improve clinical practice, such as in the recognition of patients' emotional problems. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether physicians could use family genogram information to identify their patients at high risk of the two most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression. Physicians' use of family genograms to stratify their patients' risk raises two questions about the information recorded on the genograms: is family information reliable and valid, and is family information associated with anxiety and depression? A review of the published epidemiological literature revealed that some basic family information recorded on genograms is useful for risk stratification.