Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:49:09.749Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Co-occurrence and Cotransmission of Affective Disorders and Alcoholism in Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

W. Maier  and
K. Merikangas
W. Maier*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Germany
K. Merikangas
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, US
*
Professor Wolfgang Maier, Psychiatrische Klinik der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, D53105 Bonn, Germany
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The analysis of patterns of co-occurrence and cotransmission of affective disorders and alcoholism in families may provide clues for understanding the excess comorbidity between these conditions in clinical settings and in the general population. This paper reports the results of a family study of the relatives of patients with bipolar disorder, unipolar depression and alcoholism, and combinations thereof. Excess comorbidity between affective disorders and alcoholism was observed in all groups of relatives. However, the sharing of familial aetiological components was not a major contributor to the excess comorbidity between affective disorders and alcoholism. Unipolar depression and alcoholism segregated independently in families, whereas a modest correlation between familial components of alcoholism and bipolar disorder was observed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 168 , Issue S30: Comorbidity of Mood Disorders , June 1996 , pp. 93 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cloninger, C. R., Reich, T. & Wetzel, R. (1979) Alcoholism and affective disorders: familial associations and genetic models. In Alcoholism and Affective Disorders: Clinical, Genetic, and Biochemical Studies (eds Goodwin, D. W. & Erickson, C. K.), pp. 57–86. New York: Spectrum Publications.Google Scholar
Coryell, W., Winokur, G., Keller, M., et al (1992) Alcoholism and primary major depression: a family study approach to coexisting disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders, 24, 93–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devor, E. J. & Cloninger, C. R. (1989) Genetics of alcoholism. Annual Review of Genetics, 23, 19–36.Google Scholar
Dunner, D. L., Hensel, B. M. & Fieve, R. R. (1979) Bipolar illness: factors in drinking behavior. American Journal of Psychiatry, 126, 583–585.Google Scholar
Gershon, E. S., Hamovit, J., Guroff, J. J., et al (1982) A family study of schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, unipolar, and normal control probands. Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 1157–1167.Google Scholar
Helzer, J. E., Canino, G. J., Yeh, E. K., et al (1990) Alcoholism – North America and Asia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 313–319.Google Scholar
Maier, W., Lichtermann, D., Minges, J., et al (1993) Continuity and discontinuity of affective disorders and schizophrenia: results of a controlled family study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 50, 871–883.Google Scholar
Maier, W., Lichtermann, D. & Minges, J. (1994) The relationship between alcoholism and unipolar depression. A controlled family study. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 28, 303–317.Google Scholar
Mannuzza, S., Fryer, A., Klein, D. F., et al (1986) Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia – Lifetime version (modified for the study of anxiety disorders): Rationale and conceptual development. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 20, 317–325.Google Scholar
Merikangas, K. R. (1990) The genetic epidemiology of alcoholism. Psychological Medicine, 20, 11–12.Google Scholar
Merikangas, K. R., Lechman, L. F., Prusoff, B. A., et al (1985) Familial transmission of depression and alcoholism. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 367–371.Google Scholar
Merikangas, K. R., Risch, N. J., Merikangas, J. R., et al (1988) Migraine and depression: association and familial transmission. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 22, 119–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merikangas, K. R., Risch, N. J. & Weissman, M. M. (1994) Comorbidity and cotransmission of alcoholism, anxiety, and depression. Psychological Medicine, 24, 69–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Regier, D. A., Farmer, M. E., Rae, D. S., et al (1990) Comorbidity of mental disorders with alcohol and other drug abuse. Journal of the American Medical Association, 264, 2511–2518.Google Scholar
Reich, T., Rice, J., Cloninger, C. R., et al (1979) The use of multiple thresholds and segregation analysis in analyzing the phenotypic heterogeneity of multifactorial traits. Annals of Human Genetics, 42, 371–389.Google Scholar
Schuckit, M. A. (1994) A clinical model of the genetics of alcoholism. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C. (1976) Statistical resolution of genetic heterogeneity in familial disease. Annals of Human Genetics, 39, 281–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winokur, G. & Coryell, W. (1991) Familial alcoholism in primary unipolar major depressive disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 184–188.Google Scholar
Winokur, G., Coryell, W., Endicott, J., et al (1993a) Further distinctions between manic-depressive illness (bipolar disorder) and primary depressive disorder (unipolar depression). American Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 1176–1181.Google Scholar
Winokur, G., Cook, B., Liskow, B., et al (1993b) Alcoholism in manic depressive (bipolar) patients. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 54, 574–576.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.