Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:11:26.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies of Adoptees from Psychiatrically Disturbed Biological Parents: Psychiatric Conditions in Childhood and Adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Lynn Cunningham ,
Remi J. Cadoret ,
Rosemary Loftus  and
James E. Edwards
Lynn Cunningham
Affiliation:
Vine Street Clinic, 610 East Vine Street, Springfield, Illinois 62703
Remi J. Cadoret
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Rosemary Loftus
Affiliation:
Barnes and Renard Hospital, Washington University, 4Q40 Audubon Ave., St. Louis, Missouri 63110
James E. Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Psychiatric problems were assessed in two groups of adoptees by interviewing the adopting parents. One group of 59 adoptees, the ‘experimental’, were born of psychiatrically disturbed biological parents; the other group, the ‘control’ of 54 adoptees, had psychiatrically ‘normal’ biological parents. Both groups had been separated from biological parents at birth.

The incidence of psychiatric conditions requiring professional care was significantly higher in the experimentais than in the controls (37 per cent vs. 14 per cent). In the experimental group more males than females were disturbed (59 per cent vs. 30 per cent). Most of the excess of disordered males were diagnosed hyperactive. There was some evidence of correlation of the type of psychiatric diagnosis of the biological parent with that of the adoptee.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 126 , Issue 6 , June 1975 , pp. 534 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

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.)

Footnotes

A synopsis of this paper was published in the December 1974 Journal.

References

1 Ader, R. & Belfer, M. (1962) Prenatal maternal anxiety and offspring emotionality in the rat. Psychological Reports, 10, 711–18.Google Scholar
2 Bohman, M. (1972) A study of adopted children, their background, environment, and adjustment. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica, 61, 90–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
3 Cantwell, D. (1972) Psychiatric illness in hyperactive children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 414–17.Google Scholar
4 Crowe, R. R. (1972) The adopted offspring of women criminal offenders: a study of their arrest records. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 600–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5 Crowe, R. R. Psychopathology among the adopted offspring of antisocial women. In press.Google Scholar
6 Goodman, R., Silberstein, R. & Mandell, W. (1963) Adopted children brought to child psychiatric clinic. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 451–6.Google Scholar
7 Goodwin, D., Schulsinger, F., Hermansen, L., Guze, S. & Winokur, G. (1973) Alcoholic problems in adoptees raised apart from alcoholic biological parents. Archives of General Psychiatry, 28, 238–43.Google Scholar
8 Heston, L. L. (1966) Psychiatric disorders in foster home reared children of schizophrenic mothers. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 819–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
9 Hutchtngs, B. & Mednick, S. (1973) Registered criminality in the adoptive and biological parents of registered male criminal adoptees. Proc. 63rd annual meeting of the American Psychopathological Association.Google Scholar
10 Kety, S. S. et al. (1968) The types and prevalence of mental illness in the biological and adoptive families of adopted schizophrenics. In Transmission of Schizophrenia (eds. Rosenthal, D. & Kety, S.), pp. 345–62. Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
11 Kirk, H., Jonassohn, K. & Fish, A. (1966) Are adoptive children especially vulnerable to stress? Archives of General Psychiatry, 14, 291–8.Google Scholar
12 Minde, K., Webs, G. & Mendelson, N. (1972) Five year followup of 91 hyperactive school children. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 11, 595–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 Morrison, J. & Stewart, M. (1971) A family study of the hyperactive child syndrome. Biological Psychiatry, 3, 189–95.Google Scholar
14 Morrison, J. & Stewart, M. (1973) The psychiatric status of the legal families of adopted hyperactive children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 28, 888–91.Google Scholar
15 Offord, D. R., Aponte, J. & Cross, L. A. (1969) Presenting symptomatology of adopted children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 20, 110–16.Google Scholar
16 Reece, S. & Levin, B. (1968) Psychiatric disturbances in adopted children: a descriptive study. Social Work, 13, 101–111.Google Scholar
17 Rosenthal, D. et al. (1968) Schizophrenics' offspring reared in adoptive homes. In The Transmission of Schizophrenia (eds. Rosenthal, D. & Kety, S.), PP. 377–92. Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
18 Rosenthal, D. et al. (1970) Genetic Theory and Abnormal Behaviour. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
19 Schechter, M. D. (1960) Observations on adopted children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 3, 21–32.Google Scholar
20 Schechter, M., Carlson, P., Simmons, J. & Work, H. (1964) Emotional problems in the adoptee. Archives of General Psychiatry, 10, 109–18.Google Scholar
21 Schulsinger, F. (1972) Psychopathy: heredity and environment. International Journal of Mental Health, 1, 190–206.Google Scholar
22 Simon, N. & Senturia, A. (1966) Adoption and psychiatric illness. American Journal of Psychiatry, 122, 858–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
23 Stewart, M. & Morrison, J. (1973) Affective disorder among the relatives of hyperactive children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 14, 209–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
24 Stott, D. H. (1973) Follow-up study from birth of the effects of prenatal stresses. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 15, 770–87.Google Scholar
25 Toussieng, P. (1962) Thoughts regarding the etiology of psychological difficulties in adopted children. Child Welfare, 41, 59–65.Google Scholar
26 Weiss, G., Minde, K., Werry, J., Douglas, V. & Nemeth, E. (1971) Studies on the hyperactive child. VIII. Five-year follow-up. Archives of General Psychiatry, 24, 409–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.