Mother's alcoholism & daughter's psychiatric illness

The risk of developing a psychiatric illness in children of an alchoholic parent depends on their gender and whether it was their mother or father who was alcohol-dependent.

Children are particularly susceptible to the negative effects of alcoholism in a parent, and adult children of alcoholics have, in general, a much higher risk of developing a psychiatric illness, but the effect of gender on this risk is not known.

To study parental alcoholism and psychiatric illnesses in children, researchers analysed data of 23,006 American males and 17,368 American females with and without a history of paternal or maternal alcoholism.

It was found that a mother-daughter connection was most influential in raising a daughter's risk for psychiatric illnesses, like mania, nicotine dependence, alcohol abuse and schizoid personality disorder.

There was also a higher risk of psychiatric illnesses among the adult children of alcoholic parents in father-son, father-daughter, and mother-son pairings, but these were not as strong as the mother-daughter link.

This study shows that in a family with an alcoholic mother, daughters have a higher relative risk for developing psychiatric problems.