PREVALENCE OF MENTAL ILLNESSES IN ADULT OFFSPRING OF ALCOHOLIC MOTHERS

Recognition of maternal alcoholism as a risk factor for mental illness in adult offspring is important. Using the Diagnostic Interview Sched ule (DIS), adult offspring of a clinical sample of alcoholic mothers w ere assessed for selected lifetime psychiatric disorders. Elevated adj usted odds ratio (OR) of alcohol abuse/dependence (OR 6.18, 95% confid ence interval (CI) 2.0-19.02), and drug abuse/dependence (OR 3.75, 95% CI 1.13-12.34) were observed for daughters of alcoholic mothers compa red with a group of women who reported no history of alcoholism in the ir parents. Prevalence rates of alcohol abuse/dependence, drug abuse/d ependence, affective disorders, general anxiety disorder, panic disord er and schizophrenia were higher in sons of alcoholic mothers than in a male comparison sample who reported no history of parental alcoholis m, however, these increases were not statistically significant.