Childhood psychopathology in children from families of alcoholic female probands.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the prevalence of DSM-III disorders among children who had been selected for study based on their maternal family history of alcoholism (either multigenerational alcoholism in the case of the high-risk group or no alcohol dependence in first- and second-degree relatives in the case of the control children).

METHOD

Thirty-four boys and 42 girls with a mean age of 11.3 years (range 8 to 18) were evaluated. An equal number of children comprised the high- and low-risk groups and were gender- and age-matched using a yoked control design.

RESULTS

The high-risk children manifested more psychiatric diagnoses overall, and significantly more internalizing disorders than controls. The relative odds of a high-risk child's having a diagnosed disorder were increased when the child lived with a biological mother and a custodial father (biological, step, or adoptive) who were both alcoholic. This relationship was exacerbated by the child's being older than 13 years of age.

CONCLUSIONS

Vertical transmission of maternal alcoholism is manifested in childhood and adolescence by the presence of increased psychopathology. This psychopathology occurred in offspring of alcoholics screened for major comorbidity, suggesting that it is unlikely that the increased psychopathology is due to cotransmission of affective or other psychopathology. The elevated risk of psychopathology in association with having an alcoholic mother was not further increased by the child's being older than 13 years of age, if the father (custodial or only biological) was not alcoholic.