The family history method: whose psychiatric history is measured?

Article Abstract:

Psychiatric patients are usually asked to note any psychiatric disorders affecting their relatives, especially their first-order relatives. This family history is useful in both psychiatric research and in evaluating the patient, but it must be accurate to be useful. Few studies have examined the characteristics of the person that gives the family history (the informant) which relate to the accuracy of the history. To examine whether a person with a certain psychiatric disorder is more likely to report a family history of the disorder, both twins of 1,033 pairs and one member of 97 pairs were interviewed to find sets of twins in which one twin suffered from either major depression, anxiety disorder, or alcoholism, while the other twin was normal. The discordant twin pairs were then asked whether either their mother or father had the same illness that afflicted one of the twins. Twins that suffered from either major depression or anxiety disorder were significantly more likely to report that one or both parents also had the disorder than were their unafflicted twin siblings. Twins who were alcoholic, on the other hand, were not more likely to report alcoholism among their parents than were their nonalcoholic siblings. These results indicate that psychiatric patients' reports of a family history of their own illness - at least concerning depression or anxiety disorders - should be interpreted cautiously and that other family members may need to be interviewed in order to obtain a more accurate family history. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Methods, Mentally ill persons, Depression, Mental, Depression (Mood disorder), Genetic aspects, Mentally ill, Family, Health risk assessment, Anxiety, Twins

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Setting boundaries for psychiatric disorders

Article Abstract:

The difficulty in distinguishing mental illness from common psychiatric problems is discussed. An example of the difficulty is a man who claims to receive vibrations from the planet Jupiter but who otherwise functions well and a woman who is afraid of snakes.

Editorial, Diagnosis, Mental illness, Psychiatric diagnosis

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Risks for conduct disorder symptoms associated with parental alcoholism in stepfather families versus intact families from a community sample

Article Abstract:

The conduct disorder, of children belonging to intact families, is compared with children from stepfather families, with alcoholism as a prevailing factor. This study explains the way divorce affects the children and is the main cause of adolescent problems.

Science & research, Children, Adolescent behaviour, Adolescent behavior

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