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Abstract
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Introduction: Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental disorder in children and adolescents (worldwide prevalence: 6.5%). In order to be able to objectify the symptoms of these patients, the MASC scale (Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children) with its four subscales (physical-somatic anxiety, danger avoidance anxiety, somatic anxiety, separation anxiety) is used.
Aims: We decided to carry out our study in order to determine whether the presence of a psychiatric family history (PFH) could be related to a greater severity of anxiety symptoms, as well as the presence of psychiatric comorbidities, regardless of the diagnosis and of the treatment used. To date there are no studies published in similar samples.
Methods: Descriptive, observational, retrospective study of children and adolescents who come to our consultation for the first time between June 2016 and June 2023, regardless of the reason for the initial consultation. Inclusion criteria: native Spanish speaker, 3-18 years old. Exclusion criteria: intellectual disability (total IQ < 70). We used logistic regression and multinominal logistic regression models for statistical analyses.
Results: Of the total of 1024 patients (54% men and 46% women), 65% of all of them (664 patients) did not have a psychiatric family history (35% did, without the presence of statistically significant differences according to sex). The most common psychiatric family history in our population would be Anxiety disorder not otherwise specified, followed by Depressive episode, Adjustment disorder and ADHD. Considering the scores obtained in the different subscales of the MASC, a significant correlation is observed between the presence of a psychiatric family history (PFH) and the physical-somatic anxiety subscale (OR 1.03, p < 0.01). Also, by increasing one unit in that subscale we found that the probabilities of an ADHD-inattentive presentation diagnosis (OR 1.10, p < 0.01) and Bipolar Disorder (OR 1.17, p < 0.01) increase. The presence of a family psychiatric history increases the probability of presenting some psychiatric comorbidity (OR 1.01, p < 0.05), specially with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OR 1.05, p < 0.05). he hace not found other positive correlations.
Conclusions: this study highlights the importance of collecting a proper psychiatric family history (PFH) , in order to prevent the onset of a pathology and/or comorbidities, and also to choose the most specific course of treatment.
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