Children of Depressed Parents at High Risk of Adverse Consequences into Adulthood

New York, NY (April 29, 2016)—The latest report from a 30-year study of families at high- and low-risk for depression reveals that the offspring of depressed parents have a higher risk for depression, morbidity and mortality that persists into middle age. While major depression typically begins during adolescence in both high- and low-risk individuals, children with a family history are more likely to have recurrent episodes of depression and poor outcomes as they mature.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Previous reports from this longitudinal study were issued at the 10- and 20-year follow-up periods, when the offspring were adolescents or young adults. This latest analysis confirms that children of depressed parents continue to have a three-fold increase in the risk of major depression or anxiety. High-risk offspring with early-onset depression also had a higher risk of a recurrence after age 20. The low-risk group did not have an increased risk of recurrence.

The study began in 1982, and the last interviews were completed in 2015. There were six waves of interviews, at baseline and 2, 10, 20, 25, and 30 years. The current analysis included 263 biological children from 91 families who entered the study at wave 1 or 2 and were assessed at wave 5 or 6.

Although the high- and low-risk groups did not show differences in education, employment status, or income at the 30-year follow-up, those in the high-risk group were more likely to be separated or divorced and had fewer children. They also received more treatment over a longer period of time, received more continuous treatment for emotional problems, and had worse overall functioning than those in the low-risk group.

“These findings indicate that a simple family history of assessment of major depression can help identify individuals at long-term risk for depression,” said Myrna Weissman, PhD, the Diane Goldman Kemper Family professor of epidemiology (in psychiatry) at Columbia University Medical Center, chief of the division of epidemiology at New York State Psychiatric Institute, and one of the lead authors of the paper. “It has been shown that even highly efficacious prevention programs for previously depressed adolescents were less effective if the parent was depressed. Our previous work has shown that treatment of the depressed parent to remission can reduce the symptoms of depression for both parent and child.”

Ongoing research with this cohort includes neuroimaging studies to better understand the biological underpinnings of depression. In the era of precision medicine, these studies are designed to bring the identification and treatment of depressed individuals to new levels of accuracy and effectiveness.

“Offspring of Depressed Parents: 30 Years Later,” was published online April 26, 2016, by the American Journal of Psychiatry. The authors are Myrna M. Weissman,PhD,^1,2  Priya Wickramaratne, PhD,^1,2   Marc J. Gameroff, PhD,¹ Virginia Warner, DrPH,¹  Daniel Pilowsky, MD, MPH,¹  Rajni Gathibandhe Kohad, MD, MPH,¹  Helena Verdeli, PhD,^1,3  Jamie Skipper, MA,¹ and Ardesheer Talati, PhD.¹

¹Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and Division of Epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY; ²The Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY; ³Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY.

Supported in part by NIMH grant R01MH-036197 (principal investigator, Dr. Weissman), the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, and the Silvio O. Conte Center (grant IP50MH090966; principal investigator, Jay Gingrich, MD, PhD).

Dr. Weissman has received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NARSAD, NIMH, the Sackler Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation; she also receives royalties from American Psychiatric Association Publishing, Multihealth Systems, Perseus Press, and Oxford University Press. Dr. Verdeli has received honoraria for psychotherapy training (Navy mental health staff and residents, Navy Medical Center Portsmouth; Fordham Institute for Humanitarian Studies [Ethiopia]; and StrongMinds [NGO, Uganda]) and for serving as keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy in Primary Care, University of Bologna, 2014; she has served as reviewer of psychotherapy supervision procedures for the World Bank Manual (Johns Hopkins University Press); she has received research funding from the International Medical Corps (NGO), as well as from Grand Challenges Canada; and she serves as Associate Editor of Global Mental Health. All other authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

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New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Department of Psychiatry  (NYSPI/Columbia Psychiatry).

New York State Psychiatric Institute (founded in 1896) and the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry have been closely affiliated since 1925. Their co-location in a New York State facility on the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center campus provides the setting for a rich and productive collaborative relationship among scientists and physicians in a variety of disciplines. NYSPI/Columbia Psychiatry is ranked among the best departments and psychiatric research facilities in the nation and has contributed greatly to the understanding of and current treatment for psychiatric disorders.  The Department and Institute are home to distinguished clinicians and researchers noted for their clinical and research advances in the diagnosis and treatment of depression, suicide, schizophrenia, bipolar and anxiety disorders and childhood psychiatric disorders.  Their combined expertise provides state of the art clinical care for patients, and training for the next generation of psychiatrists and psychiatric researchers.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.