How can research benefit children of parents with severe mental illness?

How can research benefit children of parents with severe mental illness? The FAMILY consortium, an EU-funded study, aims to understand the intergenerational transmission of mental illness risk by examining the interactions between genetics and the environment, and therefore, improve early intervention and mental health care. Severe mental illnesses (SMI), such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, are among the most disabling health conditions worldwide. (1) Despite decades of research, their causes remain complex and only partially understood. One of the most informative approaches to uncovering the etiology, i.e., the origination, of these disorders has been the study of children born to parents with severe mental illness. Studies of ‘familial high-risk offspring’ offer a unique window into how genetics, the environment, and development interact over time, increasing the risk of developing a mental illness or, importantly, strengthening resilience. The FAMILY consortium, an interdisciplinary, multisite study funded by the European Union, builds on this approach. It focuses on understanding and predicting the so-called ‘intergenerational transmission’ of risk for mental illness. (3)