This is a three-year competitive renewal to conduct data analysis on a longitudinal study of 220 children ages 6-23 of depressed and normal probands. The purpose is to gain understanding of the assessment, nature, risk and familial patterns of psychiatric problems of children of depressed parents. This study employs both high-risk longitudinal and family case-control designs. The children are at high risk for major depression by virtue of their parents' clinical status, and have been followed over 2 years. The children and their parents derive from a family-genetic study of adults with major depression and matched normal controls drawn from a community sample. Diagnostic data from interview and/or multiple informants on the first-degree relatives of the proband-parents are available.
The aims are to use the data on this cohort of children and their families to further understanding of the offspring of depressed parents in five areas: (1) Methodologic issues in the assessment of psychopathology; (2) Risk factors associated with psychiatric disorders; (3) Clinical nature and course of psychiatric problems; (4) Patterns of transmission of psychiatric disorders between generations; and (5) Continuity between childhood and adult psychiatric disorders. The family data collection on the proband-parent and their adult relatives has been completed, and the results are available in numerous publications. The first wave of interviews has been completed on 220 children and their parents. The second wave of interviews (family participation rate of 95%) will be ready for analysis June, 1986. This grant ends August 31, 1986 and there is sufficient time to complete the complete data analysis. We are requesting funds for analysis because it is premature to undertake new data collection without exploration of the existing data. The analyses to date have shown that these children of depressed parents are at increased risk for a variety of serious health problems and have yielded rich insights into the assessment of psychopathology. Since major depression is a highly prevalent disorder among women of childbearing years, our findings will have implications for early case finding, clinical care and preventive intervention. There are no other published studies of children of depressed parents that simultaneously have been of this size, used control groups and multiple informants, have been longitudinal and have systematically assessed biological relatives.
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