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Parent's Bipolar Disorder, Offspring's Mental Illness Linked

(HealthDay News)
by -- Lisa Cockrell, PhD
Updated: Mar 4th 2009

new article illustration

WEDNESDAY, Mar. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Children of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder are at greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders, especially early-onset bipolar disorder, according to research published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Boris Birmaher, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and colleagues interviewed and assessed children aged 6 to 18 years; 388 children from 233 parents with bipolar disorder were compared with 251 children from 143 matched control parents. The lifetime prevalence and specificity of psychiatric disorders among the children was determined.

The investigators found that children of parents with bipolar disorder were at a higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders themselves. These children had a 13.4-fold increased risk for bipolar spectrum disorders, a 5.2-fold increased risk for mood disorders and a 2.3-fold increased risk for anxiety disorders. Compared with families with one parent with bipolar disorder, families with two bipolar parents had offspring with bipolar disorders significantly more often (odds ratio, 3.6), the report indicates.

"It is critical to have prospective longitudinal studies of the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder that include comparisons with offspring of parents with and without non-bipolar disorders to evaluate clinical and biological phenotypes and genetic polymorphisms that can help determine who is at risk to develop bipolar disorder," the authors state.

Several of the study authors report financial relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

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