Children who have a parent with bipolar disorder are more likely to display symptoms of affective and behavioral dysfunction than are children who do not have a parent with the condition, a study headed by Rasim Diler of the University of Pittsburgh and published in the November-December issue of Bipolar Disorders has found.
And another recent study has shown that these children are at risk for a variety of psychiatric illnesses—anxiety disorders, major depression, and schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, among others. For more details about this study, see the December 2 Psychiatric News here.
The good news, however, is that even though bipolar disorder has a strong heritable component, a substantial number of children of parents with bipolar disorder do not experience the illness themselves.
Source: American Psychiatric Association
