Sibling aggregation for psychopathology in offspring of opiate addicts: Effects of parental comorbidity

Applied a new analytic approach within the high-risk paradigm, the analysis of sibling aggregation, to identify homogeneous subtypes of familial risk for psychopathology and addiction. All sibling pairs participating in a stu dy of offspring of opiate-addicted parents were identified and their aggreg ation for psychiatric disorders wets determined using pairwise odds ratios, an analytic technique used in genetic epidemiology. Sibling aggregation wa s most not able for depressive and anxiety disorders but only in the presen ce of comorbid depressive disorders in the parents. Parental comorbid alcoh olism did not impact sibling aggregation. We emphasize methodological impli cations of this approach for addressing issues of phenotypic and etiologic heterogeneity in the study of developmental risk for substance abuse.