TY - JOUR

T1 - Running in the FAMILY

T2 - understanding and predicting the intergenerational transmission of mental illness

AU - van Houtum, Lisanne A. E. M.

AU - Baaré, William F. C.

AU - Beckmann, Christian F.

AU - Castro-Fornieles, Josefina

AU - Cecil, Charlotte A. M.

AU - Dittrich, Juliane

AU - Ebdrup, Bjørn H.

AU - Fegert, Jörg M.

AU - Havdahl, Alexandra

AU - Hillegers, Manon H. J.

AU - Kalisch, Raffael

AU - Kushner, Steven A.

AU - Mansuy, Isabelle M.

AU - Mežinska, Signe

AU - Moreno, Carmen

AU - Muetzel, Ryan L.

AU - Neumann, Alexander

AU - Nordentoft, Merete

AU - Pingault, Jean Baptiste

AU - Preisig, Martin

AU - Raballo, Andrea

AU - Saunders, John

AU - Sprooten, Emma

AU - Sugranyes, Gisela

AU - Tiemeier, Henning

AU - van Woerden, Geeske M.

AU - Vandeleur, Caroline L.

AU - van Haren, Neeltje E. M.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Family

KW - Intergenerational transmission

KW - Mental illness

KW - Offspring

KW - Resilience

KW - Risk prediction

U2 - 10.1007/s00787-024-02423-9

DO - 10.1007/s00787-024-02423-9

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38613677

AN - SCOPUS:85190378678

JO - European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Supplement

JF - European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Supplement

SN - 1433-5719

ER -