Original Article
Family-Genetic and Psychosocial Risk Factors in DSM-III Attention Deficit Disorder

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ABSTRACT

Using family study methodology and assessments made by blind raters, this study evaluated family-genetic and psychosocial risk factors for DSM-III attention deficit disorder (ADD) among the 457 first-degree relatives of clinically referred children and adolescents with ADD (N = 73), compared with psychiatric (N = 26) and normal controls (N = 26). Relatives of ADD probands had a higher morbidity risk for ADD (25.1% versus 5.3% versus 4.6%, ps < 0.00001), antisocial disorders (25.3% versus 6.9% versus 4.2%, ps < 0.00001), and mood disorders (27.1% versus 13.9%, p = 0.038 and 27.1% versus 3.6%, p = 0.00001) than did relatives of psychiatric and normal controls. The increased risk for ADD could not be accounted for by gender or generation of relative, the age of proband, social class, or the intactness of the family. These results confirm and extend previous findings indicating important family-genetic risk factors in ADD.

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    This work was supported, in part, by grants from the Charlupski Foundation (JB), as well as USPHS (NIMH) grant RO1 MH-41314-01A2 (JB). The authors thank Dr. Kerim Munir and Virginia Wright, B.A., for their help with this project, as well as Dr. Michael Jellinek for his encouragement.

    Partial abstracts and preliminary presentations of some material in this manuscript were presented at the Regional Meetings of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry, Jerusalem, Israel, April 1989; the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, San Francisco, May 1989; and the Annual Research Symposium, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, January 1989.

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