Depression Risk Worsens Through Generations
Web MD

Depression Risk Worsens Through Generations
Kids With 2-Generation Family History at High Risk
By Salynn Boyles

WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Michael Smith, MD
on Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Jan. 12, 2005 - Risk of depression intensifies as it is passed down from
generation to generation. Having a parent with a history of depression is a
known
risk factor for depression in children and teens.

Now compelling new research shows the risk to be far greater in children with
both a parent and grandparent with depressive disorders.

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center followed three
generations of families for more than 20 years. They found that more than half
of the
children with a parent and a grandparent who suffered from depression were also
diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder before they reached their teens.

"Children of parents and grandparents with depression are at extremely high
risk for mood and anxiety disorders even when they're very young," says lead
researcher Myrna Weissman, PhD. "They should be considered for treatment if they
develop anxiety disorder, or at least monitored very closely."

Double the Risk

The study by Weissman and colleagues is the first to assess depression in
low- and high-risk families over three generations. Forty-seven adults were
enrolled in 1982. Over the next two decades, 86 of their children and 161 of
their
grandchildren were also enrolled.

The average age of the grandchildren in the study is now 12. The frequency of
anxiety disorders among children with both a parent and grandparent who
suffered from depression was more than twice that which would be expected in the
general population.

Anxiety disorders are diagnosed more often than depression in children but
are considered a strong risk factor for depression later in life.

The researchers found that 54% of children who had a grandparent and a parent
with a history of depression had an anxiety disorder, compared with just 11%
of low-risk children who had no family history of depression.

Sixty-eight percent of the children in the high-risk group had some type of
psychiatric condition, compared with 21% of the children with no family risk.

The findings were published in the January issue of the Archives of General
Psychiatry. Weissman and colleagues conclude that anxiety disorders in children
with a two-generation history of family depression can be viewed "as an
expression of the same underlying disorder" as the depression experienced by the
parent and grandparent.

"It is important for anyone treating depressed adults to get family
histories and also to find out what is going on with their children," Weissman
tells
WebMD.

Nature vs. Nurture

Nature vs. Nurture

Weissman and her Columbia University colleagues are collecting brain imaging
data on the families involved in the study in an effort to better understand
the factors that influence family risk.

They are also conducting research to determine if treating parental
depression prevents or delays the onset of depression and other psychiatric
disorders
in children.

"These are probably genetic illnesses, but they are environmentally
influenced," she says. "If you can reduce the stress of exposure to the parent's
depression you may delay the onset of the child's illness, which can have a big
impact on development." Washington, D.C., psychiatrist Carol Kleinman, MD, tells
WebMD that the research reinforces the importance of knowing a patient's
family history of depression and other psychiatric disorders.

"It is something that we are very aware of," she says. "Certainly genetics
plays a role here, but so does environment. Families with a depressed parent
tend to be very isolated."

Child and adolescent psychiatrist Stephanie Hamarman, MD, says obtaining a
careful family history is especially important when treating children and teens
with depression and other psychiatric problems.

Hamarman is chief of psychiatry at Brooklyn's Stanley S. Lamm Institute. She
says parents with a history of depression tend to be aware that their children
are also at risk.

"I have been seeing more and more concerned moms who have been struggling
with depression themselves who bring their kids in because they do know it is
important."

SOURCES: Weissman, M. Archives of General Psychiatry , January 2005; vol 62:
pp 29-36. Myrna Weissman, PhD, professor of psychiatry and epidemiology,
Columbia University Medical Center; chief, division of clinical and genetic
epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute. Stephanie Hamarman, MD,
chief of
psychiatry, Stanley S. Lamm Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y. Carol Kleinman, MD,
assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, George Washington University Medical
School, Washington, D.C.






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Posted by az/maroc at 9:50 AM MST
Updated: Saturday, 26 March 2005 4:34 PM MST
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