Parental post-traumatic stress disorder and increased risk of chronic pain conditions and major psychiatric disorders in their offspring.

BACKGROUND

Previous research suggests that individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have higher risk of chronic pain symptoms. It remains unknown whether risk of chronic pain symptoms occurs in the offspring of parents with PTSD. This study aimed to explore the risk of chronic pain conditions and depression in the offspring of parents with PTSD.

METHODS

Between 1996 and 2011, we included subjects whose parents had PTSD and controls with parents without PTSD or any major psychiatric disorders (MPDs) from the Taiwan National Health Research Database. The controls (1:10) were matched for age, sex, time of birth, income, and residence. Poisson regression was applied to estimate the risk of chronic pain conditions and MPDs between case and control cohorts during the study period. The chronic pain conditions assessed were migraine, tension headache, fibromyalgia, peripheral neuropathy, dorsopathies, dysmenorrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and dyspepsia.

RESULTS

We included 1139 cases and 11,390 matched controls. After adjusting for demographics and family history of psychiatric comorbidities, offspring of parents with PTSD had higher risk for depressive disorder [reported as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.59, 1.71-3.92] than controls. For chronic pain conditions, offspring of parents with PTSD had higher risk for migraine (2.01, 1.01-3.98) and IBS (1.55, 1.02-2.34) than controls.

CONCLUSIONS

Healthcare workers should be aware that offspring of parents with PTSD have a higher risk of chronic pain conditions and depressive disorder. Further intervention to mitigate the risk is warranted.