NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children of parents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk for psychiatric disorders themselves, particularly early-onset bipolar spectrum disorders, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry for March.

“These findings further support the familiality and validity of bipolar disorder in youth and indicate a need for early identification and treatment,” Dr. Boris Birmaher, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and colleagues state.

The results show that children of parents with bipolar disorder are 13.4-times more likely to develop a bipolar spectrum disorder than those of parents without bipolar disorder. Similarly, having a bipolar parent increases the odds of any mood, anxiety, and Axis I disorder by 5.2-, 2.3-, and 2.2-fold, respectively.

In families with high socioeconomic status, offspring of bipolar parents were at greater risk for disruptive behavior disorders and Axis I disorders than those of parents without bipolar disorder.

The findings come from the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study, which compared the occurrence of psychiatric disorders in 388 children of 233 parents with bipolar disorder with that of 251 offspring of 143 matched parents without bipolar disorder.

Ten families had two parents with bipolar spectrum disorder. Among children of bipolar parents, the risk of bipolar disorder was 3.6-times higher when both parents had the disorder rather than just one.

Over three-quarters of children who developed bipolar disorder experienced their first mood episode before 12 years of age.

“Because nearly half of the offspring of parents with BP have not yet manifested any diagnosable psychiatric illness, there is a great need and opportunity for primary prevention in this high-risk population,” the authors emphasize.

Reference:
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2009;66:287-296.