Visual memory in offspring of parents with mental illness

Severe mental illness (SMI) refers to impairing and frequently chronic disorders that are difficult to treat. Lower cognitive performance early in life may be a manifestation of risk for SMI. Visual memory has been highlighted as a potential cognitive predictor of future risk of developing bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. We examined visual memory in 214 participants (mean age = 12.62, SD = 4.49) using the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT). Our sample included 37 offspring with no parental history of mental illness, 103 offspring with parental history of non-severe mental illness (NSMI), and 74 offspring with parental history of SMI. We tested the effects of family history of mental illness on visual memory using mixed-effects linear regression. After accounting for age, sex, and family clustering, we found that as severity of parental mental illness increases, offspring visual memory performance decreases significantly (b = -3.58, 95% CI -6.79 to -0.37, p = 0.029). We found that severity of parental mental illness predicts visual memory ability. This finding may help identify youth most at risk of developing mental illness and thus inform future interventions.