RELATIONSHIP OF AGE OF ONSET IN UNIPOLAR AFFECTIVE-DISORDER TO RISK OF ALCOHOLISM AND DEPRESSION IN PARENTS

Age of onset in probands with unipolar depressive illness was related to risks for alcoholism and depression in patients by the use of regression analysis. Data from 5 family studies showed a monotically decreasing risk for depression in relatives; increasing age of onset of illness in the proband fit the data as well as a model predicting 2 different risks for relatives. This may be consistent with a multigenic model of unipolar affective disorder but heterogeneity with 2 or more unrelated types of unipolar depressive illness remains a possibility since risks for alcoholism in relatives show 2 discrete periods of risk. Early onset, or depression spectrum disease should be defined as a depressive syndrome in an individual with alcoholism/or sociopathy in a 1st-degree relative.