Spiritual disease will be hereditary

Spiritual disease will be hereditary
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -The children of parents with panic disorder or major depression are at increased risk of developing t he same disorders that afflict their parents --even at a very young age, according to researchers in Boston. Other studies have suggested that such disorders can pass from parent to child, but Dr. Joseph Biederman of Massachusetts General Hospital and colleagues wanted to clarify the patterns of t heir transmission. In particular, they wanted to assess whether a general"anxiety proneness" ran through certain families, or if disorders are inherited more specifically. Overall, "parental panic disorder and major depression conferred a significant risk for dysfunction and emotio nal distress in their offspring, "the authors report in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. According to their study of 380 children, children of parents with panic disorder exhibited higher rates of panic disorder and some other anxie ty disorders than children of parents with no anxiety or mood disorders. Children of parents with panic disorder also exhibited a higher rate of agoraphobia --a disorder related to fear of public places and open spaces --than children from unaffected families. A similar trend was observed in children of parents with both panic disorder and major depression. Children whose parents had major depression also exhibited higher rates of major depression. These children were nine times more likely to exhibit major depression than children with unaffected families. Social phobia was also more common among children whose parents were treated for major depression and among children whose parents were treated for both panic disorder and major depression than among una ffected families. The findings offer"mixed support" for the idea of general " anxiety proneness" running through famili es, the authors note. They conclude that follow-up studies are needed to determine whether these children's problems"will c onfer further vulnerability," as we ll as to seek out the factors that affect the continuation of the disorders in adulthood. "We believe that this knowledge can lead to the development of preventive and early intervention prog rams aimed at children at risk," Biederman told Reuters Health. "We believe that this information will be useful to clinicians treating adults with these disorders, to those treating children with behavioral and emotional problems, to pediatricians and family physicians interfacing with growing children and their parents, as well as to affected parents themselves and public health officials," he added. SOURCE: American Journal of Psychiatry 2001; 158:49-57.

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