Psychiatric morbidity in the offspring of patients with affective disorders. A preliminary report.

40 randomly selected patients with bipolar, unipolar and schizoaffective illness were interviewed about their 85 male and female first-degree offspring using the Conner's Parent Questionnaire and the Greenhill Brief Sociopathy Scale. Although there was a conspicuous absence of homologous illness in the offspring, the highest incidence of psychiatric symptoms was found in male offspring and adopted offspring of all diagnostic categories and the male and female children of bipolar parents. One third of the bipolar probands and one-fourth of the unipolar probands were reported by their parents to have motor-behavior problems. The symptom profile may be the harbinger to forbode more formal psychiatric difficulties in adulthood.