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Psychosocial functioning in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder

Tolulope Bella1, Tina Goldstein, David Axelson

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. bellatt2002@yahoo.com

Journal of Affective Disorders
|April 6, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Children with parents who have bipolar disorder show psychosocial functioning impairments. These issues are linked to parental functioning and the child's own psychopathology, not solely genetics.

Area of Science:

  • Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • Psychosocial Functioning
  • Genetic Risk Factors

Background:

  • Offspring of parents with bipolar disorder (BP) have an increased risk for psychopathology.
  • Psychosocial functioning in these offspring is not well-understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare the psychosocial functioning of children with parents with bipolar disorder, other psychopathology, or no psychopathology.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study (BIOS).
  • Compared three groups: offspring of BP probands (n=388), other psychopathology probands (n=132), and healthy probands (n=118).
  • Assessed psychosocial functioning using A-LIFE, CBCL, and CGAS.

Main Results:

  • Offspring of BP probands showed impaired psychosocial functioning compared to offspring of healthy probands.
  • These impairments were generally greater than in offspring of non-BP psychopathology probands.
  • After adjusting for parental functioning and child's psychopathology, differences diminished.

Conclusions:

  • Psychosocial impairments in offspring of BP parents are largely explained by parental functioning and the child's own psychopathology.
  • Interventions targeting parental and child psychopathology may mitigate long-term functional impairment risks.
  • Cross-sectional data limits causal inference.
Abstract

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