Affective disorders and associated psychopathology: a family history study

A pedigree in which affective psychosis, obsessive-compulsive phenomena, panic attacks, and eating disorders cluster over three generations is presented. The index proband is a 17-year-old girl with schizoaffective disorder, depressed type, bulimia nervosa, panic attacks, and intraepisode obsessive-compulsive phenomena. She has two male siblings; one has bipolar II disorder and the other has had multiple episodes of major depression. Both have panic attacks and exhibit obsessive-compulsive phenomena while depressed. The phenomenologies of the siblings' illnesses incorporate features from both sides of the family. It is proposed that the association of affective disorders with other forms of psychopathology might best be demonstrated by studying families transgenerationally.