Risk factors for parental psychopathology: a study in families with children or adolescents with psychopathology.

The parents of children with psychopathology are at increased risk for psychiatric symptoms. To investigate which parents are mostly at risk, we assessed in a clinical sample of families with children with psychopathology, whether parental symptom scores can be predicted by offspring psychiatric diagnoses and other child, parent and family characteristics. Parental depressive, anxiety, avoidant personality, attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), and antisocial personality symptoms were measured with the Adult Self Report in 1805 mothers and 1361 fathers of 1866 children with a psychiatric diagnosis as assessed in a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinic. In a multivariate model, including all parental symptom scores as outcome variables, all offspring psychiatric diagnoses, offspring comorbidity and age, parental age, parental educational attainment, employment, and relationship status were simultaneously tested as predictors. Both 35.7% of mothers and 32.8% of fathers scored (sub)clinical for at least one symptom domain, mainly depressive symptoms, ADHD symptoms or, only in fathers, avoidant personality symptoms. Parental psychiatric symptoms were predicted by unemployment. Parental depressive and ADHD symptoms were further predicted by offspring depression and offspring ADHD, respectively, as well as by not living together with the other parent. Finally, parental avoidant personality symptoms were also predicted by offspring autism spectrum disorders. In families with children referred to child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinics, parental symptom scores are associated with adverse circumstances and with similar psychopathology in their offspring. This signifies, without implying causality, that some families are particularly vulnerable, with multiple family members affected and living in adverse circumstances.

[Psychopathology in families: an integral approach via the family outpatient clinic]. / Psychiatrische stoornissen binnen gezinnen: een integrale benadering via de familiepoli.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric disorders run in families. To bridge the gap between child and youth psychiatry and adult psychiatry, GGZ inGeest has started screening parents of new registered children for psychopathology - and if indicated - offers parents treatment in the same department as their children. AIM: To examine the feasibility and usefulness of this procedure, to investigate how many parents agree to screening, further diagnostics and treatment, and to find out how many parents have in fact suffered from recent psychiatric problems. METHOD: Prior to the children's first appointment, the parents were asked to complete a questionnaire, the Adult Self Report (ASR), about their own problems. If these scores were (sub)clinical, parents were invited to participate in a telephonic interview. This consisted of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS). If the results indicate psychopathology, further psychiatric assessment and, if necessary, treatment is offered. RESULTS: The first response was 55.7% and, if indicated, most of the parents agreed on further diagnostics. On the ASR 2 out of 5 mothers (42.1%) and 1 out of 5 fathers (21.8%) reported problems that could point to a psychiatric disorder. According to the ASR, within this high-risk group 37% of the mothers met the criteria for an axis I diagnosis (less than one month earlier) compared to 70.6% of the fathers. A mood disorder was the primary diagnosis for women, whereas men most often suffered from an anxiety disorder. In total, 19.1% of the parents screened were suffering from recent psychopathology and 75% of this group agreed to receive mental health care (treatment at the family outpatient clinic or referred to another clinic). CONCLUSION: Implementation of the family outpatient clinic scheme is feasible. However, further efforts are needed in order to reach a larger group of parents, particularly fathers. The family outpatient clinic is useful because parents who suffer from psychopathology do not always receive mental health care. However, a randomised control trial is needed to determine whether parallel treatment of parents and children can improve the treatment outcome for children.

Spousal resemblance in psychopathology: A comparison of parents of children with and without psychopathology.

BACKGROUND: Spouses resemble each other for psychopathology, but data regarding spousal resemblance in externalizing psychopathology, and data regarding spousal resemblance across different syndromes (e.g. anxiety in wives and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] in husbands) are limited. Moreover, knowledge is lacking regarding spousal resemblance in parents of children with psychiatric disorders. We investigated and compared spousal resemblance within and across internalizing and externalizing symptom domains in parents of children with and without psychopathology. METHODS: Symptoms of depression, anxiety, avoidant personality, ADHD, and antisocial personality were assessed with the Adult Self Report in 728 mothers and 544 fathers of 778 children seen in child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinics and in 2075 mothers and 1623 fathers of 2784 children from a population-based sample. Differences in symptom scores and spousal correlations between the samples were tested. RESULTS: Parents in the clinical sample had higher symptom scores than in the population-based sample. In both samples, correlations within and across internalizing and externalizing domains of psychopathology were significant. Importantly, correlations were significantly higher in the clinical sample (P=0.03). Correlations, within and across symptoms, ranged from 0.14 to 0.30 in the clinical sample and from 0.05 to 0.23 in the population-based sample. CONCLUSIONS: This large study shows that spousal resemblance is not only present within but also across symptom domains. Especially in the clinical sample, ADHD symptoms in fathers and antisocial personality symptoms in mothers were correlated with a range of psychiatric symptoms in their spouses. Clinicians need to be alert of these multiple affected families.