THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY FACTORS IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS

ABSTRACT:

Objective: to establish which are the main family risk factors associated with some important psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, the pattern of a possible Romanian risk family and how this family evolved and eventually changed during the last 5 years in the context of world globalization.

Method: we have studied retrospectively a sample representing all new patients taken into Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic Timişoara during 2008. The psychiatric diagnosis is established according to ICD-10 and DSM IV. For each patient we looked for the existing family risk factors, concerning family structure, family relationships, psychiatric disorders of other family members, professional and economical status. The results were analyzed statistically, and compared at the end with the results of a similar study done in 2004.

Results: after the results” interpretation, we could describe the most frequent pattern of family in which one can find child and adolescent psychiatric disturbances, a “risk family” in our cultural space. We present the degree of association between the main psychiatric diagnosis found and the existence of risk factors in the origin family.

Conclusion: as found in the psychiatric literature, there is at least an association, if not a causal relation, between family risk factors and psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.