The association between parental bonding and obsessive compulsive disorder in offspring at high familial risk

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders 2008-11, Vol.111 (1), p.31-39
• Main Authors: Wilcox, Holly C, Grados, Marco, Samuels, Jack, Riddle, Mark A, Bienvenu, Oscar J, Pinto, Anthony, Cullen, Bernadette, Wang, Ying, Shugart, Yin Y, Liang, Kung-Yee, Nestadt, Gerald
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Family environment. Family history; Female; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Object Attachment; Obsessive compulsive disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - diagnosis; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - epidemiology; Obsessive-compulsive disorders; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parenting - psychology; Principal Component Analysis; Prospective Studies; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk Factors; Social Environment; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2008.01.025

Abstract Background The aim of the current study is to estimate the association between parenting factors derived from the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and a lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD. Method Data were from approximately 1200 adults from 465 families assessed as part of a large family and genetic study of OCD. The association of three parenting factors, for fathers and mothers, with offspring OCD status were examined; analyses were stratified by parental OCD status and family loading for OCD (multiplex versus sporadic). Results Three factors were derived by principal components factor analysis of the PBI (maternal and paternal care, overprotection and control). Maternal overprotection was associated with OCD in offspring with familial OCD (familial cases) but only if neither parent was affected with OCD, which suggests independent but additive environmental and genetic risk (OR = 5.9, 95% CI 1.2, 29.9, p = 0.031). Paternal care was a protective factor in those not at high genetic risk (sporadic cases) (OR = 0.2, 95% CI 0.0, 0.8, p = 0.027). Maternal overprotection was also associated with offspring OCD in sporadic families (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.3, 6.6, p = 0.012). The finding that parental overprotection and care were not associated with offspring OCD when at least one parent had OCD addressed directly the hypothesis of maternal or paternal OCD adversely impacting parenting. Conclusions This study provides evidence that aspects of parenting may contribute to the development of OCD among offspring. Prospective studies of children at risk for OCD are needed to explore the direction of causality.