Diagnoses in school-age children of bipolar affective disorder patients and normal controls

A family study of psychiatric diagnoses was performed in 29 children of bipolar patients and 37 children of normal controls, ages 6-17. There were no differences in major or minor affective diagnoses between the patient and control groups, but there was an increase of non-specific diagnoses in the patient group. Using DSM-III criteria, 10% of patients' children and 14% of controls' children had had at least one episode of major depression. This suggests that major depression in children is not familially related to adult bipolar major affective disorder. The observed prevalence of depression in childhood is increased when both direct interview of children and interview of parents are performed.