Running in the FAMILY: understanding and predicting the intergenerational transmission of mental illness

Lisanne A E M van Houtum, William F C Baaré, Christian F Beckmann, Josefina Castro-Fornieles, Charlotte A M Cecil, Juliane Dittrich, Bjørn H Ebdrup, Jörg M Fegert, Alexandra Havdahl, Manon H J Hillegers, Raffael Kalisch, Steven A Kushner, Isabelle M Mansuy, Signe Mežinska, Carmen Moreno, Ryan L Muetzel, Alexander Neumann, Merete Nordentoft, Jean-Baptiste Pingault, Martin PreisigAndrea Raballo, John Saunders, Emma Sprooten, Gisela Sugranyes, Henning Tiemeier, Geeske M van Woerden, Caroline L Vandeleur, Neeltje E M van Haren

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Over 50% of children with a parent with severe mental illness will develop mental illness by early adulthood. However, intergenerational transmission of risk for mental illness in one's children is insufficiently considered in clinical practice, nor is it sufficiently utilised into diagnostics and care for children of ill parents. This leads to delays in diagnosing young offspring and missed opportunities for protective actions and resilience strengthening. Prior twin, family, and adoption studies suggest that the aetiology of mental illness is governed by a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors, potentially mediated by changes in epigenetic programming and brain development. However, how these factors ultimately materialise into mental disorders remains unclear. Here, we present the FAMILY consortium, an interdisciplinary, multimodal (e.g., (epi)genetics, neuroimaging, environment, behaviour), multilevel (e.g., individual-level, family-level), and multisite study funded by a European Union Horizon-Staying-Healthy-2021 grant. FAMILY focuses on understanding and prediction of intergenerational transmission of mental illness, using genetically informed causal inference, multimodal normative prediction, and animal modelling. Moreover, FAMILY applies methods from social sciences to map social and ethical consequences of risk prediction to prepare clinical practice for future implementation. FAMILY aims to deliver: (i) new discoveries clarifying the aetiology of mental illness and the process of resilience, thereby providing new targets for prevention and intervention studies; (ii) a risk prediction model within a normative modelling framework to predict who is at risk for developing mental illness; and (iii) insight into social and ethical issues related to risk prediction to inform clinical guidelines.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Volume33
Issue number11
Pages (from-to)3885-3898
Number of pages14
ISSN1018-8827
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Keywords

  • Child
  • Child of Impaired Parents/psychology
  • Family/psychology
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders/genetics

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