Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-31T23:21:39.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Parental history of psychiatric diagnoses and unipolar depression: a Danish National Register-based cohort study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2015

K. L. Musliner*
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
B. B. Trabjerg
Affiliation:
National Centre for Register-based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark and The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Denmark
B. L. Waltoft
Affiliation:
National Centre for Register-based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark and The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Denmark
T. M. Laursen
Affiliation:
National Centre for Register-based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark and The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Denmark
P. B. Mortensen
Affiliation:
National Centre for Register-based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark and The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Denmark
P. P. Zandi
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
T. Munk-Olsen
Affiliation:
National Centre for Register-based Research, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark and The Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, iPSYCH, Denmark
*
* Address for correspondence: K. L. Musliner, MPH, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Hampton House, Room 780, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. (Email: kmuslin1@jhu.edu)

Abstract

Background

Depression is known to run in families, but the effects of parental history of other psychiatric diagnoses on depression rates are less well studied. Few studies have examined the impact of parental psychopathology on depression rates in older age groups.

Method

We established a population-based cohort including all individuals born in Denmark after 1954 and alive on their 10th birthday (N = 29 76 264). Exposure variables were maternal and paternal history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety or ‘other’ psychiatric diagnoses. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) were estimated using Poisson regressions.

Results

Parental history of any psychiatric diagnosis increased incidence rates of outpatient (maternal: IRR 1.88, p < 0.0001; paternal: IRR 1.68, p < 0.0001) and inpatient (maternal: IRR 1.99, p < 0.0001; paternal: IRR 1.83, p < 0.0001) depression relative to no parental history. IRRs for parental history of non-affective disorders remained relatively stable across age groups, while IRRs for parental affective disorders (unipolar or bipolar) decreased with age from 2.29–3.96 in the youngest age group to 1.53–1.90 in the oldest group. IRR estimates for all parental diagnoses were similar among individuals aged ⩾41 years (IRR range 1.51–1.90).

Conclusions

Parental history of any psychiatric diagnosis is associated with increased incidence rates of unipolar depression. In younger age groups, parental history of affective diagnoses is more strongly associated with rates of unipolar depression than non-affective diagnoses; however, this distinction disappears after age 40, suggesting that parental psychopathology in general, rather than any one disorder, confers risk for depression in middle life.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, PK, Borgen, O, Gill, RD, Keiding, N (1993). Statistical Models Based on Counting Processes. Springer-Verlag: New York, NY.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Argyropoulos, SV, Landau, S, Kalidindi, S, Toulopoulou, T, Castle, DJ, Murray, RM, Picchioni, MM (2008). Twins discordant for schizophrenia: psychopathology of the non-schizophrenic co-twins. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 118, 214219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beardslee, WR, Keller, MB, Lavori, PW, Klerman, GK (1988). Psychiatric disorder in adolescent offspring of parents with affective disorder in a non-referred sample. Journal of Affective Disorders 15, 313322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardslee, WR, Keller, MB, Seifer, R, Lavori, PW, Staley, J, Podorefsky, D, Shera, D (1996). Prediction of adolescent affective disorder: effects of prior parental affective disorders and child psychopathology. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 35, 279288.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biederman, J, Faraone, SV, Hirschfeld-Becker, DR, Friedman, D, Robin, JA, Rosenbaum, JF (2001). Patterns of psychopathology and dysfunction in high-risk children of parents with panic disorder and major depression. American Journal of Psychiatry 158, 4957.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Billings, AG, Moos, RH (1986). Children of parents with unipolar depression: a controlled 1-year follow-up. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 14, 149166.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Browne, MA, Joyce, PR, Wells, JC, Bushnell, JA, Hornblow, AR (1995). Adverse parental behavior and other childhood experiences as risk factors for depression in women aged 18–44. Journal of Affective Disorders 34, 1323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, L (2003). The impact of maternal depression on family relationships. International Review of Psychiatry 15, 243255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerda, M, Sagdeo, A, Johnson, G, Galea, S (2010). Genetic and environmental influences on psychiatric comorbidity: a systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders 126, 1438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coppens, E, Van Audenhove, C, Scheerder, G, Arensman, E, Coffey, C, Costa, S, Koburger, N, Gottlebe, K, Gusmao, R, O'Connor, R, Postuvan, V, Sarchiapone, N, Sisask, M, Szekely, A, van der Feltz-Cornelis, C, Hegerl, U (2013). Public attitudes toward depression and help-seeking in four European countries baseline survey prior to the OSPI-Europe intervention. Journal of Affective Disorders 150, 320329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culpin, I, Heron, J, Araya, R, Melotti, R, Joinson, C (2013). Father absence and depressive symptoms in adolescence: findings from a UK cohort. Psychological Medicine 43, 26152626.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dean, K, Stevens, H, Mortensen, PB, Murray, RM, Walsh, E, Pedersen, CB (2010). Full spectrum of psychiatric outcomes among offspring with parental history of mental disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 67, 822829.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Demirkan, A, Penninx, BW, Hek, K, Wray, NR, Amin, N, Aulchenko, YS, van Dyck, R, de Geus, EJ, Hofman, A, Uitterlinden, AG, Hottenga, JJ, Noben, WA, Oostra, BA, Sullivan, PF, Willemsen, G, Zitman, FB, Tiemeier, H, Janssens, AC, Boomsma, DI, van Duijn, CM, Middeldorp, CM (2011). Genetic risk profiles for depression and anxiety in adult and elderly cohorts. Molecular Psychiatry 16, 773783.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Donahue, KL, D'Onofrio, BM, Bates, JE, Lansford, JE, Dodge, KA, Pettit, GS (2010). Early exposure to parents’ relationship instability: implications for sexual behavior and depression in adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Health 47, 547554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garfield, AS, Cowley, M, Smith, FM, Moorwood, K, Stewart-Cox, JE, Gilroy, K, Baker, S, Xia, J, Dalley, JW, Hurst, LD, Wilkinson, LS, Isles, AR, Ward, A (2011). Distinct physiological and behavioural functions for parental alleles of imprinted Grb10. Nature 469, 534538.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gershon, ES, Hamovit, J, Guroff, JJ, Dibble, E, Leckman, JF, Sceery, W, Targum, SD, Nurberger, JI Jr., Goldin, LR, Bunney, WE Jr. (1982). A family study of schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, unipolar, and normal control probands. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 11571167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, SH (2007). Depression in mothers. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 3, 107135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C, Burge, D, Burney, E, Adrian, C (1990). Longitudinal study of diagnoses in children of women with unipolar and bipolar affective disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 47, 11121117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henin, A, Biederman, J, Mick, E, Sachs, GS, Hirshfeld-Becker, D, Siegel, RS, McMurrich, S, Grandin, L, Nierenberg, AA (2005). Psychopathology in the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder: a controlled study. Biological Psychiatry 58, 554561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, JG, Cohen, P, Kasen, S, Brook, JS (2006). A multiwave multi-informant study of the specificity of the association between parental and offspring psychiatric disorders. Comprehensive Psychiatry 47, 169177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, JG, Cohen, P, Kasen, S, Smailes, E, Brook, JS (2001). Association of maladaptive parental behavior with psychiatric disorder among parents and their offspring. Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 453460.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS (1995). Is seeking treatment for depression predicted by a history of depression in relatives? Implications for family studies of affective disorder. Psychological Medicine 25, 807814.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Davis, CG, Kessler, RC (1997). The familial aggregation of common psychiatric and substance use disorders in the national comorbidity survey: a family history study. British Journal of Psychiatry 170, 541548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessing, LV (2005). Diagnostic stability in depressive disorder as according to ICD-10 in clinical practice. Psychopathology 38, 3237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, RC, Berglund, P, Demler, O, Jin, R, Merikangas, KR, Walters, EE (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication. Archives of General Psychiatry 62, 593602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, DN, Clark, DC, Dansky, L, Margolis, ET (1988). Dysthymia in the offspring of parents with primary unipolar affective disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 97, 265274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klein, DN, Lewinsohn, PM, Rohde, P, Seeley, JR, Olino, TM (2005). Psychopathology in the adolescent and young adult offspring of a community sample of mothers and fathers with major depression. Psychological Medicine 35, 353365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, DN, Lewinsohn, PM, Seeley, JR, Rohde, P (2001). A family study of major depressive disorder in a community sample of adolescents. Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 1321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laird, N, Olivier, D (1981). Covariance analysis of censored survival data using log-linear analysis techniques. Journal of the American Statistical Association 76, 231240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landman-Peeters, KM, Ormel, J, Van Sonderen, EL, Den Boer, JA, Minderaa, RB, Hartman, CA (2008). Risk of emotional disorder in offspring of depressed parents: gender differences in the effect of a second emotionally affected parent. Depression and Anxiety 25, 653–650.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, SH, Cross Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (2013). Genetic relationship between five psychiatric disorders estimated from genome-wide SNPs. Nature Genetics 45, 984995.Google ScholarPubMed
Lieb, R, Isensee, B, Hofler, M, Pfister, H, Wittchen, HU (2002). Parental major depression and the risk of depression and other mental disorders in offspring. Archives of General Psychiatry 59, 365374.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lovejoy, MC, Graczyk, PA, O'Hare, E, Neuman, G (2000). Maternal depression and parenting behavior: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review 20, 561592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Low, NC, Dugas, E, Constantin, E, Karp, I, Rodriguez, D, O'Loughlin, J (2012). The association between parental history of diagnosed mood/anxiety disorders and psychiatric symptoms and disorders in young adult offspring. BMC Psychiatry 12, 188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGuffin, P, Rijsdijk, F, Andrew, M, Shan, P, Katz, R, Cardno, A (2003). The heritability of bipolar affective disorder and the genetic relationship to unipolar depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 60, 497502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merikangas, KR, Prusoff, BA, Weissman, MM (1988). Parental concordance for affective disorders: psychopathology in offspring. Journal of Affective Disorders 15, 279290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merikangas, KR, Risch, NJ, Weissman, MM (1994). Comorbidity and co-transmission of alcoholism, anxiety and depression. Psychological Medicine 24, 6980.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Middeldorp, CM, Cath, DC, van Dyck, R, Boomsma, DI (2005). The co-morbidity of anxiety and depression in the perspectives of genetic epidemiology: a review of twin and family studies. Psychological Medicine 35, 611624.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, J, McCauley, E, Burke, P, Calderon, R, Schloredt, K (1989). Psychopathology in parents of depressed children and adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 28, 352357.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, BH, McGrath, AC, Goldman, MS, Rottenberg, J (2014). Parental depression confers greater prospective depression risk to females than males in emerging adulthood. Child Psychiatry and Human Development 45, 7889.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mors, O, Perto, GP, Mortensen, PB (2011). The Danish psychiatric central research register. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 39, 5457.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ohannessian, CM, Hesselbrock, VM, Kramer, J, Kuperman, S, Bucholz, KK, Schuckit, MA, Nurnberger, JI (2005). The relationship between parental psychopathology and adolescent psychopathology: an examination of gender patterns. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 13, 6776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orvaschel, H, Walsh-Allis, G, Ye, WJ (1988). Psychopathology in children of parents with recurrent depression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 16, 1728.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pedersen, CB (2011). The Danish civil registration system. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 39, 2225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pedersen, CB, Gøtzsche, H, Møller, JO, Mortensen, PB (2006). The Danish civil registration system: a cohort of eight million persons. Danish Medical Bulletin 53, 441449.Google ScholarPubMed
Puig-Antich, J, Goetz, D, Davies, M, Kaplan, T, Davies, S, Ostrow, L, Asnis, L, Twomey, J, Lyengar, S, Ryan, ND (1989). A controlled family history study of prepubertal major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 46, 406418.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Radke-Yarrow, M, Nottelmann, E, Martinez, P, Fox, MB (1992). Young children of affectively ill parents: a longitudinal study of psychosocial development. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 31, 6877.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roy, A (1985). Early parental separation and adult depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 42, 987991.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steegenga, WT, Boekschoten, MV, Lute, C, Hooiveld, GJ, de Groot, PJ, Morris, TJ, Teschendorff, AE, Butcher, LM, Beck, S, Müller, M (2014). Genome-wide age-related changes in DNA methylation and gene expression in human PBMCs. Age 36, 15231540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steinhausen, HC, Foldager, L, Perto, G, Munk-Jørgensen, P (2009) Family aggregation of mental disorders in the nationwide Danish three generation study. European Archives of Clinical Neuroscience 259, 270277.Google ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, PF, Neale, MC, Kendler, KS (2000). Genetic epidemiology of major depression: review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry 157, 15521562.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thygesen, LC, Daasnes, C, Thaulow, I, Bronnum-Hansen, H (2011). Introduction to Danish (nationwide) registers on health and social issues: structure, access, legislation and archiving. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 39(Suppl. 7), 1216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Todd, RD, Geller, B, Neuman, R, Fox, LW, Hickok, J (1996). Increased prevalence of alcoholism in relatives of depressed and bipolar children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 35, 716724.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Fendrich, M, Warner, V, Wickramaratne, P (1992). Incidence of psychiatric disorder in offspring at high and low risk for depression. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 31, 640648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Gammon, GD, John, K, Merikangas, KR, Warner, V, Prusoff, BA, Sholomskas, D (1987). Children of depressed parents. increased psychopathology and early onset of major depression. Archives of General Psychiatry 44, 847853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Gershon, ES, Kidd, KK, Prusoff, BA, Leckman, JF, Dibble, E, Hamovit, J, Thompson, D, Pauls, DL, Guroff, JJ (1984 a). Psychiatric disorders in the relatives of probands with affective disorders. the Yale university – national institute of mental health collaborative study. Archives of General Psychiatry 41, 1321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, MM, Kidd, KK, Prusoff, BA (1982). Variability in rates of affective disorders in relatives of depressed and normal probands. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 13971403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Leckman, JF, Merikangas, KR, Gammon, GD, Prusoff, BA (1984 c). Depression and anxiety disorders in parents and children. results from the Yale family study. Archives of General Psychiatry 41, 845852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Prusoff, BA, Gammon, GD, Merikangas, KR, Leckman, JF, Kidd, KK (1984 b). Psychopathology in the children (ages 6–18) of depressed and normal parents. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 23, 7884.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Warner, V, Wickramaratne, P, Moreau, D, Olfson, M (1997). Offspring of depressed parents. 10 years later. Archives of General Psychiatry 54, 932940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Wickramaratne, P, Merikangas, KR, Leckman, JF, Prusoff, BA, Caruso, KA, Kidd, KK, Gammon, GD (1984 d). Onset of major depression in early adulthood. Increased familial loading and specificity. Archives of General Psychiatry 41, 11361143.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weissman, MM, Wickramaratne, P, Nomura, Y, Warner, V, Pilowsky, D, Verdeli, H (2006). Offspring of depressed parents: 20 years later. American Journal of Psychiatry 163, 10011008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weller, RA, Kapadia, P, Weller, EB, Fristad, M, Lazaroff, LB, Preskorn, SH (1994). Psychopathology in families of children with major depressive disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders 31, 247252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Welner, Z, Rice, J (1988). School-aged children of depressed parents: a blind and controlled study. Journal of Affective Disorders 15, 291302.Google ScholarPubMed
Wickramaratne, PJ, Weissman, MM (1998). Onset of psychopathology in offspring by developmental phase and parental depression. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 37, 933942.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, S, Durbin, CE (2010). Effects of paternal depression on fathers’ parenting behaviors: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review 30, 167180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
WHO (1971). Classification of Diseases: Extended Danish-Latin Version of the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases, 8th Revision, 1965. Danish National Board of Health: Copenhagen.Google Scholar
WHO (1994). WHO ICD-10: Mental and Behavioural Disorders, Classification and Diagnostic Criteria. Munksgaard Danmark: Copenhagen.Google Scholar