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Family study of the aggregation of eating disorders and mood disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2003

B. MANGWETH
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
J. I. HUDSON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
H. G. POPE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
A. HAUSMANN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
C. De COL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
N. M. LAIRD
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
W. BEIBL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA
M. T. TSUANG
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Innsbruck and Innsbruck University Clinics, Innsbruck, Austria; and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston and the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA

Abstract

Background. Family studies have suggested that eating disorders and mood disorders may coaggregate in families. To study further this question, data from a family interview study of probands with and without major depressive disorder was examined.

Method. A bivariate proband predictive logistic regression model was applied to data from a family interview study, conducted in Innsbruck, Austria, of probands with (N=64) and without (N=58) major depressive disorder, together with 330 of their first-degree relatives.

Results. The estimated odds ratio (OR) for the familial aggregation of eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder) was 7·0 (95% CI 1·4, 28; P=0·006); the OR for the familial aggregation of mood disorders (major depression and bipolar disorder) was 2·2 (0·92, 5·4; P=0·076); and for the familial coaggregation of eating disorders with mood disorders the OR was 2·2 (1·1, 4·6; P=0·035).

Conclusions. The familial coaggregation of eating disorders with mood disorders was significant and of the same magnitude as the aggregation of mood disorders alone – suggesting that eating disorders and mood disorders have common familial causal factors.

Type
Brief Communication
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Presented in part at the Eating Disorders Research Society Meeting, San Diego, November 1999; International Conference on Eating Disorders, New York, May 2000; American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, May 2000; and Eating Disorder Research Society Meeting, Charleston, SC, November 2002.