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A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Risk of Disruptive Behavioral Disorders in the Offspring of Parents with Severe Psychiatric Disorders

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Abstract

Inconsistent results of the association between severe psychiatric disorders (SPD) in parents and the risk of disruptive behavioral disorders (DBD) including conduct disorders (CD) and oppositional defiant disorders (ODD) in the offspring have been found by previous epidemiologic studies. PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched for relevant studies. Fourteen studies met the predefined criteria for inclusion. A meta-analysis of the included studies revealed an elevated risk of DBD in the offspring of parents with SPD, bipolar, and depressive disorders. Our further analysis considering the specific DBD as an outcome showed that parents with SPD are at an increased risk of having a child with ODD as well as CD. Moreover, the current meta-analysis found that the children of parents with bipolar disorder were also at increased risk of ODD and CD. Parental schizophrenia and depressive disorders were not associated with higher risks of ODD and CD in the offspring.

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Abbreviations

BD:

Bipolar disorder

CES-D:

Center for epidemiologic studies depression scale

CD:

Conduct disorder

DBD:

Disruptive behavioural disorder

DSM-III:

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM), third edition

DSM-IV:

Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM), fourth edition

FEM:

Fixed effect model

ICD:

International classification of disease

K-SADS:

Kiddie schedule for affective disorders

MDD:

Major depressive disorders

ODD:

Oppositional defiant disorder

OR:

Odds ratio

RR:

Relative RISK

SPD:

Severe psychiatric disorder

REM:

Random effect model

UK:

United Kingdom

USA:

United States of America

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the University of Queensland and Curtin University for providing us a wide range of available online databases.

Funding

No external funding obtained for this systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Getinet Ayano, Kim Betts & Rosa Alati

  2. School of Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Joemer Calderon Maravilla & Rosa Alati

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  1. Getinet Ayano
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  2. Kim Betts
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  3. Joemer Calderon Maravilla
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  4. Rosa Alati
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Contributions

GA conceptualized the study, developed the methodology, identified all potential studies, abstracted the data, evaluated the quality of the studies, performed the analysis, and developed the first draft of the manuscript. JCM abstracted the data and evaluated quality. KB reviewed the draft of the manuscript and the analysis. RA reviewed the designed protocol, reviewed data abstraction, and analysis and contributed to the development of the subsequent manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Getinet Ayano.

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Ayano, G., Betts, K., Maravilla, J.C. et al. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Risk of Disruptive Behavioral Disorders in the Offspring of Parents with Severe Psychiatric Disorders. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 52, 77–95 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-00989-4

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