Parental psychopathology in children with psychiatric symptoms.

It is well known that psychiatric disorders run in families. Twin studies in
children have shown that the familial clustering for psychiatric disorders is
partly due to genetic factors, but also to the familial environment. Still,
extensive knowledge on the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms within families
is lacking. Most family studies are *top-down*, investigating psychopathology
in offspring of affected parents. Additionally, there have only been a few
studies investigating current psychopathology in parents of children suffering
from a psychiatric disorder. Moreover, these studies were always restricted to
certain diagnoses or symptom cluster. Given the high levels of co-morbidity
between psychiatric disorders in children as well as adults, this is an
important shortcoming. The current study aims to measure current symptoms in
parents of children admitted to an outpatient psychiatric clinic.

To get insight into the prevalence of a whole range of psychiatric symptoms of
parents of children who have been admitted to an outpatient clinic for child
and adolescent psychiatry for various psychiatric symptoms and the
parent-offspring correlations for similar and different symptom clusters.

An observational study.

The practical burden of filling out the questionnaire is moderate. It will take
approximately 45 minutes.
The interview will also take approximately 45 minutes.
For most parents, the study will remain restricted to completing the form, so
the total burden will be minimal. For the parents who suffer from a psychiatric
disorder both the practical burden and the emotional burden are higher as being
confronted with their symptoms will probably be an uncomforting experience.
However, it is expected that these uncomforting feelings will disappear rather
soon (in a few hours) after completing the survey and/or the interview.