The validity of the family history screen for assessing family history of mental disorders

There is a need to collect psychiatric family history information quickly and economically (e.g., for genome‐wide studies and primary care practice). We sought to evaluate the validity of family history reports using a brief screening instrument, the Family History Screen (FHS). We assessed the validity of parents' reports of seven psychiatric disorders in their adult children probands from the Dunedin Study (n = 959, 52% male), using the proband's diagnosis as the criterion outcome. We also investigated whether there were informant characteristics that enhanced accuracy of reporting or were associated with reporting biases. Using reports from multiple informants, we obtained sensitivities ranging from 31.7% (alcohol dependence) to 60.0% (conduct disorder) and specificities ranging from 76.0% (major depressive episode) to 97.1% (suicide attempt). There was little evidence that any informant characteristics enhanced accuracy of reporting. However, three reporting biases were found: the probability of reporting disorder in the proband was greater for informants with versus without a disorder, for female versus male informants, and for younger versus older informants. We conclude that the FHS is as valid as other family history instruments (e.g., the FH‐RDC, FISC), and its brief administration time makes it a cost‐effective method for collecting family history data. To avoid biasing results, researchers who aim to compare groups in terms of their family history should ensure that the informants reporting on these groups do not differ in terms of age, sex or personal history of disorder. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

[1]  E. Walker,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[2]  Daniel L. Segal,et al.  Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (DIS-IV) , 2010 .

[3]  Phil A. Silva,et al.  Sex differences in antisocial behaviour , 2006 .

[4]  J. Ballenger Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Cumulative and Sequential Comorbidity in a Birth Cohort Followed Prospectively to Age 32 Years , 2009 .

[5]  A. Caspi,et al.  How should we construct psychiatric family history scores? A comparison of alternative approaches from the Dunedin Family Health History Study , 2008, Psychological Medicine.

[6]  M. Preisig,et al.  Inter-informant agreement and prevalence estimates for substance use disorders: direct interview versus family history method. , 2008, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[7]  P. Cooper,et al.  A family study of co-morbidity between generalized social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder in a non-clinic sample. , 2007, Journal of affective disorders.

[8]  Richie Poulton,et al.  Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Cumulative and Sequential Comorbidity in a Birth Cohort Followed Prospectively to Age 32 Years , 2009 .

[9]  A. Fanous,et al.  Interleukin 3 and schizophrenia: the impact of sex and family history , 2007, Molecular Psychiatry.

[10]  P. Franke,et al.  Validity, reliability and objectivity of the family history method in psychiatry: A meta analysis , 2007, European Psychiatry.

[11]  R. Bland,et al.  A population-based family study of DSM-III generalized anxiety disorder , 2006, Psychological Medicine.

[12]  P. Cooper,et al.  Impact of psychiatric disturbance on identifying psychiatric disorder in relatives: study of mothers and daughters , 2006, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[13]  H. Adami,et al.  Reliability of self-reported family history of cancer in a large case-control study of lymphoma. , 2006, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[14]  H. Harrington,et al.  Cumulative prevalence of psychiatric disorder in youths. , 2005, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[15]  P. Sullivan,et al.  The Irish Affected Sib Pair Study of Alcohol Dependence: study methodology and validation of diagnosis by interview and family history. , 2005, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[16]  E. Rüther,et al.  Early traumatic life events, parental rearing styles, family history of mental disorders, and birth risk factors in patients with social anxiety disorder , 2004, European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

[17]  K. Nuechterlein,et al.  Validity of the family history method for diagnosing schizophrenia, schizophrenia-related psychoses, and schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia probands , 2004, Schizophrenia Research.

[18]  Gavin Andrews,et al.  Lifetime prevalence estimates of major depression: An indirect estimation method and a quantification of recall bias , 2004, European Journal of Epidemiology.

[19]  Sarah A. Mustillo,et al.  Prevalence and development of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence. , 2003, Archives of general psychiatry.

[20]  A. Caspi,et al.  Prior juvenile diagnoses in adults with mental disorder: developmental follow-back of a prospective-longitudinal cohort. , 2003, Archives of general psychiatry.

[21]  S. Shankman,et al.  Family study of co-morbidity between major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders , 2003, Psychological Medicine.

[22]  Muin J Khoury,et al.  Research priorities for evaluating family history in the prevention of common chronic diseases. , 2003, American journal of preventive medicine.

[23]  Esben Agerbo,et al.  Suicide risk in relation to family history of completed suicide and psychiatric disorders: a nested case-control study based on longitudinal registers , 2002, The Lancet.

[24]  R. Poulton,et al.  Long-term relation between breastfeeding and development of atopy and asthma in children and young adults: a longitudinal study , 2002, The Lancet.

[25]  P. Mortensen,et al.  Family history of psychiatric disorders and age at first contact in schizophrenia: An epidemiological study , 2002, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[26]  K. Kendler,et al.  The joint analysis of personal interview and family history diagnoses: evidence for validity of diagnosis and increased heritability estimates , 2002, Psychological Medicine.

[27]  E. Rüther,et al.  Early traumatic life events, parental attitudes, family history, and birth risk factors in patients with panic disorder. , 2002, Comprehensive psychiatry.

[28]  P. Sullivan,et al.  Genetic epidemiology of major depression: review and meta-analysis. , 2000, The American journal of psychiatry.

[29]  M. Weissman,et al.  Brief screening for family psychiatric history: the family history screen. , 2000, Archives of general psychiatry.

[30]  R L Williams,et al.  A Note on Robust Variance Estimation for Cluster‐Correlated Data , 2000, Biometrics.

[31]  A. Folsom,et al.  Accuracy of proband reported family history: The NHLBI Family Heart Study (FHS) , 1999, Genetic epidemiology.

[32]  C. Berthiaume,et al.  Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-2.25) in Quebec: reliability findings in light of the MECA study. , 1998, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[33]  D. Fulker,et al.  A family history and direct interview study of the familial aggregation of substance abuse: the adolescent substance abuse study. , 1998, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[34]  W. Maier,et al.  Subject and informant variables affecting family history diagnoses of depression and dementia , 1997, Psychiatry Research.

[35]  Christopher G. Davis,et al.  The familial aggregation of common psychiatric and substance use disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey: A family history study , 1997, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[36]  D C Rao,et al.  NHLBI Family Heart Study: objectives and design. , 1996, American journal of epidemiology.

[37]  W. Maier,et al.  Validity of the family history method in relatives of gerontopsychiatric patients , 1996, Psychiatry Research.

[38]  K. Kendler,et al.  Accuracies and inaccuracies of the family history method: a multivariate approach , 1996, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[39]  M. Weissman,et al.  Family psychiatric screening instrument for epidemiologic studies: pilot testing and validation , 1995, Psychiatry Research.

[40]  G. Simon,et al.  Recall of psychiatric history in cross-sectional surveys: implications for epidemiologic research. , 1995, Epidemiologic reviews.

[41]  J. Nurnberger,et al.  Diagnostic interview for genetic studies. Rationale, unique features, and training. NIMH Genetics Initiative. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[42]  K. Kendler,et al.  Biases in the diagnosis of alcoholism by the family history method. , 1994, Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research.

[43]  D. Klein,et al.  Effects of informant mental disorder on psychiatric family history data. , 1994, The American journal of psychiatry.

[44]  R. Kessler,et al.  Sex and depression in the National Comorbidity Survey. I: Lifetime prevalence, chronicity and recurrence. , 1993, Journal of affective disorders.

[45]  P. Lewinsohn,et al.  Adolescent psychopathology: I. Prevalence and incidence of depression and other DSM-III-R disorders in high school students. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[46]  B. Rounsaville,et al.  Ascertaining psychiatric diagnoses with the family history method in a substance abuse population. , 1992, Journal of psychiatric research.

[47]  R. Kessler,et al.  The family history method: whose psychiatric history is measured? , 1991, The American journal of psychiatry.

[48]  John P. Rice,et al.  The family history approach to diagnosis. How useful is it? , 1986, Archives of general psychiatry.

[49]  H. Skinner,et al.  The drug abuse screening test. , 2013, Addictive behaviors.

[50]  三田村幌,et al.  本邦におけるMichigan Alcoholism Screening Test(MAST)の検討 , 1981 .

[51]  L. Robins,et al.  National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Its history, characteristics, and validity. , 1981, Archives of general psychiatry.

[52]  Nancy C. Andreasen,et al.  The family history method using diagnostic criteria , 1978 .

[53]  N C Andreasen,et al.  The family history method using diagnostic criteria. Reliability and validity. , 1977, Archives of general psychiatry.

[54]  M L Selzer,et al.  A self-administered Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (SMAST). , 1975, Journal of studies on alcohol.