FAMILY STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS

该计划项目研究几个主要的儿童/青少年 精神障碍，每一种都有现有证据表明 家族性传播。正在调查的障碍是：注意 伴和不伴多动的缺陷障碍；情绪障碍，以及 儿童期发作的精神分裂症。 该计划项目有4个关于这些障碍的总体目标： 1)阐明遗传因素在其病因中的作用；2) 根据家系定义诊断病因学和分类 遗传数据；3)检查某些可能的病理生理 机制；以及4)确定重要的心理和社会因素 相互关联。 项目1(“基因分析”)是该方案的中心。这 Project利用由其他项目汇编的数据并提供 数学、家族和遗传分析。其他6个项目各 专注于特定的障碍，并在项目内测试特定的 当前理论重要性的假设。这些项目的组织 单独的项目作为一个计划项目确保了 该建筑群所需的科学家和专业的多样性 正在进行数据收集。此外，每个项目都有假设 需要进行家族遗传学研究的测试。 计划项目的核心设施最大限度地提高了 研究通过为以下方面提供中央综合资源进行研究： 招募、诊断和(临床和实验室)评估 主题；建立和维护数据库；统计数据 分析。在各种诊断项目中将使用传统的 症状群、诸如DSM之类的诊断方案，此外， 被认为是更直接地反映病理生理的评估措施 精神障碍(例如，注意力测试)。因此，项目框架 允许同时进行横断面研究和家庭研究 评估跨诊断的症状重叠程度以及 检查这些诊断的假定基础的个别研究。

This Program Project studies several major childhood/adolescent psychiatric disorders, each with existing evidence suggestive of familial transmission. The disorders under investigation are: attention deficit disorder with and without hyperactivity; mood disorder, and childhood onset schizophrenia. The Program Project has 4 overall aims with regard to these disorders: 1) to clarify the role of genetic factors in their etiology; 2) to define the diagnostic nosology and classification in the light of family genetic data; 3) to examine certain possible pathophysiological mechanisms; and 4) to identify significant psychological and social correlates. Project 1 ("Genetic Analysis") is the center of the Program. This project utilizes data assembled by the other projects and provides mathematical, family and genetic analyses. The other 6 projects each focuses on specific disorders, and test specific within-project hypotheses of current theoretical importance. The organization of these separate projects as a Program Project insures the collaboration among the diversity of scientists and specialties necessary for the complex data collection undertaken. In addition, each project has hypotheses to test which require family genetic studies. The Core facilities of the Program Project maximize the efficiency of the research studies by providing central consolidated resources for: recruitment, diagnosis and (clinical and laboratory) assessment of subjects; establishing and maintaining data bases; and statistical data analyses. Diagnosis in the various projects will use traditional symptom clusters, diagnostic schemes such as DSM, and, in addition, assessment measures thought to more directly reflect the pathophysiology of the disorders (e.g., attentional tests). Thus, the Project framework permits simultaneous work on cross-sectional and family studies assessing the degree of symptom overlap across diagnoses along with individual studies examining the putative substrates of these diagnoses.