Researchers establish interesting connections between the two

Oct 15, 2011 11:04 GMT  ·  By
BPD is more prevalent in adults coming from families with a history of mental illness
   BPD is more prevalent in adults coming from families with a history of mental illness

In a paper published in the latest issue of the esteemed medical journal Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine propose that the family environment in which children grow is a great indicator of their chances of developing bipolar disorder (BPD).

These risks increase further if parents and other relatives suffer from mental disorders themselves. Some of the conditions positively associated with an increase in BPD risks include anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

However, the connection only become apparent later in life. That is to say, children do not necessarily develop BPD during their teen years, as some researchers expected to find. Rather, BPD comes later on in their adult lives, making experts' attempts of establishing its origins more difficult.

At this point, scientists have not established the root cause of bipolar disorders. Some propose that family history of mental illness may be a predictive factors, but conclusive scientific evidence to back up these claims are largely missing, PsychCentral reports.

IU School of Medicine decided to analyze this issue in detail, and so they conducted a longitudinal survey on 141 children who were determined to be at high risk of developing the disorder.

The team mostly sought to examine the lifetime prevalence and early clinical predictors for psychiatric disorders – including BPD – in this population. All children and adolescents in this research came from families that had a history of bipolar disorder or other mental disorders.

The results “reinforce the importance of family history in evaluating the meaning of diagnoses in children and adolescents, and they support a different monitoring and management strategy for children and adolescents with a positive family history of bipolar disorder,” the team writes in the journal entry.

When cross-referencing data collected on the study group to information obtained from a control group, researchers determined that the prevalence of conditions such as depression and BPD in the first group was around 23 percent.

Conversely, children in control families – who did not have a history of mental disorders – exhibited a incidence of depression and BPD of only a 4 percent. This tremendous difference led scientists to conclude that family histories of mental illness are indeed the most important predictive factors.