Mood lability among offspring of parents with bipolar disorder and community controls. (3rd April 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Birmaher, Boris; Goldstein, Benjamin I; Axelson, David A; Monk, Kelly; Hickey, Mary Beth; Fan, Jieyu; Iyengar, Satish; Ha, Wonho; Diler, Rasim S; Goldstein, Tina; Brent, David; Ladouceur, Cecile D; Sakolsky, Dara; Kupfer, David J
• Is Part Of: Bipolar disorders. Volume 15:Number 3(2013:May)
• Page Start: 253
• Page End: 263
• Publication Date: 2013-04-03
• Subjects: Manic-depressive illness -- Periodicals; Depression, Mental -- Periodicals; 616.895
• DOI: 10.1111/bdi.12060
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1398-5647

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="bdi12060-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="bdi12060-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Objectives</title> <p>Early identification of bipolar disorder (BP) symptomatology is crucial for improving the prognosis of this illness. Increased mood lability has been reported in BP. However, mood lability is ubiquitous across psychiatric disorders and may be a marker of severe psychopathology and not specific to BP. To clarify this issue, this study examined the prevalence of mood lability and its components in offspring of BP parents and offspring of community control parents recruited through the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study.</p> </sec> <sec id="bdi12060-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>Forty‐one school‐age BP offspring of 38 BP parents, 257 healthy or non‐BP offspring of 174 BP parents, and 192 offspring of 117 control parents completed a scale that was developed to evaluate mood lability in youth, i.e., the Children's Affective Lability Scale (CALS).</p> </sec> <sec id="bdi12060-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>A factor analysis of the parental CALS, and in part the child CALS, revealed <italic>Irritability</italic>, <italic> Mania</italic>, and <italic>Anxiety/Depression</italic> factors, with most of the variance explained by the <italic>Irritability</italic> factor. After adjusting for confounding factors (e.g., parental and offspring non‐BP psychopathology), BP offspring of BP parents showed the highest parental and child total and factor scores, followed by the non‐BP offspring of BP parents, and then the offspring of the controls.</p> </sec> <sec id="bdi12060-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>Mood lability overall and mania‐like, anxious/depressed, and particularly irritability symptoms may be a prodromal phenotype of BP among offspring of parents with BP. Prospective studies are warranted to clarify whether these symptoms will predict the development of BP and/or other psychopathology. If confirmed, these symptoms may become a target of treatment and biological studies before BP develops.</p> </sec> </abstract>