[Children of parents with mood disorders]

In recent years, child and adolescent psychiatry has recognized a high prevalence rate of mental disorders in affective disorders' offsprings. These can vary in their nature and severity. What is important is to bare in mind this risk condition. Many times prevention is possible, or early treatment is available. In an investigation that is actually being carried out in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Chile, that searches for understanding factors that severely deviate child and adolescent development, we found it is not unusual for the parents of the proband group to have affective disorders. In order to illustrate the discussion we describe three clinical histories.