anxiety disorders, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder

Arlington, Va. - Results from a NIMH funded 20-year study showing that children of depressed parents are at higher risk for psychiatric and medical problems are reported in the June issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry (AJP), the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

The risks for anxiety disorders and major depression were approximately three times as high in children with at least one depressed parent, and their rate of phobias was four times as high. They also had higher rates of substance dependence and self-reported physical illness in mid-adulthood than children of non-depressed parents. Around 35-years-old, children of depressed parents reported higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders (five times as likely) and neuromuscular disorders (twice as likely) than those of non-depressed parents.

"This work highlights the significant life-long risk faced by children of a depressed parent. Efforts to improve treatment of depressed parents may thus have potential benefits that reach the next generation," said Robert Freedman, M.D., AJP editor-in-chief.

Major depressive disorder appeared between the ages of 15 and 20 years and there was a slight increase in new anxiety disorders among women between ages 28 and 32. By adulthood, children of depressed parents functioned more poorly at work and in their extended families. Although 83 percent had experienced psychiatric disorders during their lifetimes, only 38 percent had received treatment for a mental illness.

Weissman MM, Wickramaratne P, Nomura Y, Warner V, Pilowsky D, Verdeli H.
Offspring of Depressed Parents: 20 Years Later
Am J Psychiatry. 2006; 163: 1001-1007.   [Abstract]

posted Friday, 2 June 2006
tags: cardiovascular disease  substance abuse  depression  anxiety disorder  neuromuscular disorders