9 Child and adolescent psychiatry9.1 Effects of parental mental disorder on children
9.1 Effects of adult mental illness on children
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Written by Resident Doctor Committee · Published
Pathways from parent to child
Shared genes raise a child's risk without settling the outcome.
Prenatal factors include the illness itself, medicines, alcohol and substances.
Caregiving suffers when symptoms reduce responsiveness, consistency and supervision.
Social circumstances such as lost income, separation and stigma affect the whole family.
Anorexia nervosa in pregnancy
Active maternal anorexia nervosa in pregnancy restricts fetal growth.
It raises the risk of small for gestational age, low birth weight, preterm birth, small head circumference and a low APGAR score.
It does not cause fetal overgrowth.
Parental depression
Depression can make a parent withdrawn, irritable or intrusive, though many depressed parents still give warm, responsive care.
Tronick's still-face experiment shows an infant's distress when an expected parental response briefly stops.
Odds ratios for a child's socio-emotional difficulties are often around 1.5 to 1.8, yet most children of depressed parents develop no diagnosable disorder.
Moderators and assessment
Risk rises with severe or recurrent illness and poverty, and falls with a well co-parent, parental treatment and supportive relatives or teachers.
Section 17ZA of the Children Act 1989 provides, in England, for a young carer's needs assessment.
Suspected abuse or significant harm calls for safeguarding action, while developmental needs justify support below that threshold.