Children of parents with mental illness: a population-based study

据世界卫生组织和世界银行估计，精神分裂症、双相情感障碍和严重抑郁症约占全球疾病负担的16%。这些疾病往往是慢性或反复发作的，对患者及其家人造成毁灭性的影响。我们今天知道，它们的部分原因是遗传的，可能会遗传给下一代。然而，另一部分原因可能是环境因素，涉及产妇怀孕并发症，以及影响儿童的心理社会逆境和应激性事件，这些儿童碰巧携带此类疾病的遗传易感性。为了理清和更好地了解这种影响，我们的研究重点是那些由于母亲患有其中一种疾病而对后代存在遗传风险的家庭。通过链接西澳大利亚人口数据库上的数据，我们的目标是跟踪患有精神分裂症、双相情感障碍或抑郁症的妇女所生的所有孩子的童年发展和年轻成年人的健康结果。世界范围内很少有这样的研究，我们预计西澳研究将回答许多悬而未决的问题，导致预防和治疗干预措施，从而减少不良后果并提高处于风险中的家庭的生活质量。

Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression account for about 16% of the global burden of disease, according to estimates by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. These disorders tend to run a chronic or recurrent course, with devastating impact on sufferers and their families. We know today that part of their causes are genetic and may be transmitted to the next generation. However, another part of the causation is likely to be environmental, involving maternal pregnancy complications, as well as psychosocial adversity and stressful events impacting children who happen to carry a genetic susceptibility to such disorders. To disentangle and understand better such effects, our research is focusing on families where genetic risk to the offspring is present, due to a mother suffering from one of these disorders. By linking data available on population databases in WA, we aim to follow up the childhood development and young adult health outcomes of all children born to women with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or depression. Few studies of this kind have been done worldwide, and we expect that the WA study will answer many unresolved questions, leading to preventative and treatment interventions that would reduce adverse outcomes and improve the quality of life of families at risk.