LAUSR

Abstract Background Children born to parents with severe mental illness like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or recurrent major depression have been shown to have a higher risk, not only for developing a mental illness themselves in adulthood (Rasic) but also in childhood and adolescence. Less is known about the offspring’s somatic health and very early development processes. Increasing knowledge demonstrate the importance of the very early years of life from birth to age 6 for a healthy and natural brain development and for good life outcomes in general. Thus, more knowledge is needed about this vulnerable period in life, especially for children, who are born with a familial high risk for severe mental illness in order to develop relevant interventions for these children. Methods We used Danish registries to evaluate the incidence and the frequencies of early (i.e. age 0–6 years) psychiatric diagnoses of a nationwide cohort of children born to parents with severe mental illness. Further we calculated the frequencies of somatic health problems and compared them to population-based controls. Results We found increased ORs for children in all three FHR-groups for having received any diagnosis of a mental disorder before age 7 (e.g.: mother depressed, N=1223): OR:2.82 (CI:2.65–2.99), mother bipolar (N=98): OR: 3.06 (CI 2.50–3.76), mother schizophrenia (N=574): OR 5.23 (CI: 4.80–5.69), and similar although a bit smaller ORs if it was the father, who had a diagnosis. Especially ORs for attachment disorder and anxiety were increased but also ORs for eating disorders and sleep disorders were found to be significantly higher than for controls. Odd ratios for somatic disorders were marginally increased for all disorders and also for intoxications and injuries. Discussion Our results document that children born to parents with severe mental illnesses are vulnerable from the beginning of life, mainly in terms of their mental health but to some extent also in terms of somatic health. Parents who have a severe mental disorder may need extra support in the parenting role to ensure good health for the child.