The overall aim is to gain understanding of the long-term nature and familial patterns of psychiatric and behavioral problems of offspring of depressed parents from childhood or adolescence through adulthood using a high risk and a longitudinal design. The offspring are at high or low risk for major depression by virtue of their parents' clinical status. The parents derive from a family-genetic study of adults with major depression or from matched normal control group drawn from a community sample. This proposal is for a ten-year follow-up when all offspring are adults. More specifically, we will determine: 1. The differential long-term clinical, social, and treatment outcome of offspring at high and low risk for major depression. 2. Parent - offspring transmission of diagnosis. 3. The continuity between childhood and adult disorders, particularly depression, in the same individual over time. 4. The long-term clinical course (incidence, recurrence, recovery) and comorbidity of the major psychiatric disorders in offspring. 5. The differential risk factors, including family history, onset, course, and impairment of offspring.
These aims will be accomplished by ten-year follow-up of 219 offspring who were ages 6-23 years old when we first studied them and their parents. Extensive baseline diagnostic, medical, family, and treatment data are available from direct interviews and multiple informants on the offspring and both parents. This study will provide the first prospective data on adult offspring grown up from vulnerable families. This study is unique in that the offspring and both parents were independently, and blindly assessed using modern diagnostic criteria at two assessments, ten and eight years ago. Findings highlight the serious course of illness and differential risk factors for onset in the offspring of depressed as compared to nondepressed parents. However, retrospective data and a two-year follow-up are insufficient. A ten-year follow-up provides information critical for developing rational treatment and prevention strategies for offspring from high risk families. There are no comparable data available.
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