Children born to parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have a higher risk of developing psychopathology than children born to parents without these conditions. The corresponding study as published in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
The study highlights the importance of long-term follow-ups for children and patients with severe mental illness as well as preventive strategies for high-risk populations.
For the study, researchers followed 238 children aged 6- 17 years old born to parents with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or neither condition for four years. They analyzed variables such as parents’ and children’s psychiatric diagnosis, family socioeconomic status, parents' age at birth, and the presence of subclinical symptoms linked to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Ultimately, the researchers found that children born to parents with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder were at double the risk of developing a psychiatric disorder than controls. In particular, children born to parents with schizophrenia had a higher risk for ADHD, disruptive disorders, and subclinical psychotic symptoms, while those born to parents with bipolar disorder had a higher risk of mood disorders, ADHD, and subclinical bipolar symptoms.
"The study confirms this increased risk and helps to better understand what factors influence mental health problems patients' children," study author Josefina Castro Fornieles, researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona, Spain, in a press release.
The researchers further found that higher parental psychosocial functioning and higher socioeconomic status were linked to a lower rate of mental health conditions in children.
“[Children born to parents with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder] have a higher risk for psychopathology but the pattern of this psychopathology seems to be group specific," wrote the researchers in their paper.
"Longer follow-up studies and larger sample sizes are needed to assess the capacity of psychopathological disorder and subclinical psychotic or bipolar symptoms to predict progression to fully-fledged disorders,” they added.
Sources: Science Daily, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry