Sydney, July 9 (Inditop.com) Family history is enough to predict the risk of mental illness and how severe it is likely to be, according to the latest research.
People are routinely queried about their family history in the case of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, but not in the case of mental illnesses.
New findings by an international group including, University of Otago researchers, make a strong case for changing current practice.
A short question-and-answer session about a person’s relatives and their symptoms of depression, anxiety is enough to predict not only whether the interviewee is likely to develop each disorder, but also how severe it is likely to be.
The findings come from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, which has followed 1,000 people born at Queen Mary Hospital in Dunedin in 1972-73 from birth through to age 32.
The researchers have been tracking the physical and mental health and lifestyles of study members since they were three years old.
“We already knew that mental illnesses tend to run in families, and are among the most heritable of all disorders,” said Richie Poulton, study co-author.
“What we didn’t know was how closely family history was linked to the seriousness of mental illnesses, and that’s what this study has helped us find out,” said Poulton.
The research team tested each individual’s experience with depression, anxiety, alcohol dependence and drug dependence in relation to their family history “scores” – the proportion of their grandparents, parents and siblings over age 10 who were affected.
The report appeared in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
