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Studies of Adoptees from Psychiatrically Disturbed Biological Parents: Psychiatric Conditions in Childhood and Adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Lynn Cunningham ,
Remi J. Cadoret ,
Rosemary Loftus  and
James E. Edwards
Lynn Cunningham
Affiliation:
Vine Street Clinic, 610 East Vine Street, Springfield, Illinois 62703
Remi J. Cadoret
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
Rosemary Loftus
Affiliation:
Barnes and Renard Hospital, Washington University, 4Q40 Audubon Ave., St. Louis, Missouri 63110
James E. Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
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Summary

Psychiatric problems were assessed in two groups of adoptees by interviewing the adopting parents. One group of 59 adoptees, the ‘experimental’, were born of psychiatrically disturbed biological parents; the other group, the ‘control’ of 54 adoptees, had psychiatrically ‘normal’ biological parents. Both groups had been separated from biological parents at birth.

The incidence of psychiatric conditions requiring professional care was significantly higher in the experimentais than in the controls (37 per cent vs. 14 per cent). In the experimental group more males than females were disturbed (59 per cent vs. 30 per cent). Most of the excess of disordered males were diagnosed hyperactive. There was some evidence of correlation of the type of psychiatric diagnosis of the biological parent with that of the adoptee.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 126 , Issue 6 , June 1975 , pp. 534 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1975 

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Footnotes

A synopsis of this paper was published in the December 1974 Journal.

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